Test 3

Death and the King's Horseman: Act 3

- - Amusa shouts at the women that he's here on official business, but the women call him a "white man's eunuch" and insist that he's not allowed here anymore. -what counts is a man's penis. -The women insult the penises of all three men - When Amusa says that they'll return with weapons, the women joke more about how the white men cut off their "weapons" (penises) before they put on the police shorts - Laugh about their lack of penises - . Amusa is glad to see Iyaloja, and explains that he's here to arrest Elesin. - Iyaloja says that Elesin has a duty to his new bride, which shocks Amusa, as he didn't think that this was a wedding. -They insult Amusa and reprimand him for insulting their mothers and intruding on the market. -They snatch the constables' batons, knock off their hats, and again tell Iyaloja that they want to deal with Amusa, since he came to the market without an invitation. -The girls adopt English accents and play-act as two Englishman at a party -One girl says she has a "faithful ox" named Amusa, who's loyal and would lay down his life for her. - In other words, their understanding of the English is exactly what enables them to stand up to Amusa and throw insults at him that are extremely effective (and humorous) -In celebrating the girls, the women celebrate female power, wherever it comes from - She says that Amusa doesn't belong here, as he now eats the leftovers of the white men. - He says that the mark on the cloth doesn't just prove that his bride was a virgin; it signifies the union of his death and of the future life of his child with the bride - Bride doesn't get any dialogue - Elesing asks the women to stand by him -Wants to die in the market, happiness and love - Communal rather than individual death - Dog is dead, then horse then Elesin -He says that no matter if he dies before or after the courier gets here, his soul will meet up with those of the horse, the dog, and the king in the afterlife - Asks women to dance wtih him - Praised singer- says he watns to make sure elesinw ill due - Elesin can help you get where he needs to go - "the unknowable death of death" -

Acculturation

is one of several forms of culture contact, and has a couple of closely related terms, including assimilation and amalgamation. Although all three of these words refer to changes due to contact between different cultures, there are notable differences between them. Acculturation is often tied to political conquest or expansion, and is applied to the process of change in beliefs or traditional practices that occurs when the cultural system of one group displaces that of another

"Wedding at the Cross"(1975)

is one of the last compositions in English from Ngugi. It follows the career of Wariuki, whose free spirited Afro-centric behavior enthralls Mariamu, but distresses her fully assimilated parents. Although she sides with Wariuki, willing to live in poverty to be wedded with him, he is irreparably stung by her father's dismissal of him as a man. Finding opportunities offered by revolution and independence, he finds financial fortune and returns triumphant to prove himself to Mariamu's father. The artificial nature of his "conversion" is shown in the ludicrous name he adopts, Dodge W. Livingstone, jr., and the culminating episode referred to by the title is rejected by Mariamu as meaningless. Like the Aidoo story, this highlights the crisis of identity for the African subject in the modern world.

Death and the kings horseman Canvas Notes fro act 2-5

- -Simon and Jane Pilkings are somewhat sophisticated British people—he is the District Commissioner of the area. - live in Africa but am insensitive to customs and ancestral masks - Joseph is able to completely reject the power of the masks, Amusa continues to view them with respect/terror) - Simon's intention to quash the intent of the horseman to the king is representative of the way colonial rule set itself against many customs it considered "barbaric." As the reader, you can be the judge of which tradition was more "correct" in this case. - When the schoolgirls confront Amusa, the constable, in the marketplace, they employ a strategy that colonized people used against their oppressors called mimicry - Elesin's (intended) passage is accompanied by the chanting, call-and-response, and ceremonial movement of the praise singer. It is a deeplyhieratic (Links to an external site.) scene, which should be imagined as performed. - The arrival of Olunde brings in a citizen of both the British world (as a medical student) and an African world - When Olunde finally meets his father, he is shocked that his father has not completed his duty as the Horseman to the King. His insult, "eater of leftovers," has to be put into an African context. -When he finishes, he passes along the remaining food to the children, then to the wife who has prepared it (in some settings, these are multiple dishes, brought to him by multiple wives). A man who has failed to become a successful man would be faced with the disgrace of eating another's leftovers. - The main action of the last act is the confrontation of Elesin by Iyaloja. - He tries to excuse himself for his failure by blaming the British—but she does not accept that. In her mind, this is a failure of will by Elesin, and cannot be excused or forgiven. He speaks to his young bride and acknowledges that the sweetness of love with her may have made his leave-taking fro this earth too difficult. What do you, as a reader, think? - The culminating moment has the body of Olunde brought in. he has taken over the role his father was supposed to perform. -Unable to bear the knowledge of his son's sacrifice, Elesin finally finds the will to take his own life (but by now it is too late to serve the people). - Joseph: House boy, Doesn't like muslin, Christian, a recent convert, - Amusa: Sergeant, muslin, he is afraid of the mask because he is Muslim - Olunde goes through the passage when the time to go threw has already passed

Chile's school Days canvas notes- Chinua Achebe

- "Chike's School Days" covers a small piece of the ground covered by the novel. - The world of Chike is heavily influenced by the conversion of some Africans to Christianity for instance, which changed the status of the slave-caste Osu dramatically. - As an Osu, Chike's ability to be raised in the white man's ways gives him opportunities he could never have in the village tradition. - The real delight of the story emerges in the school attended by Chike, in his fascination with the English language, and with Achebe's genius for linguistic blending of the Igbo native language with the emergence of English. - With his fascination with words (periwinkle, constellation, Damascus), Chike seems to be the avatar of the author, Achebe (seems to be the figure who represents him). (And we use the word avatar only for the Chike's in the audience—those who are fascinated with words. - We almost used the word amanuensis, but that is not precisely right for this purpose).

Death and the King's Horseman: Act 4

- - At the ball - Prince enters the room - Prince sits in the corner - The prince is fascinated by their egungun costumes, and Pilkings demonstrates how the natives dance when they wear the costumes - The resident is still confused—the notes say the market women are rioting. - Is amusa exagegerating - Pilkings finds out late about the riot - Pilkings says he won't let it slip past him - Resident wants a safe and secure colony - Pilkings doesn't care about Elesin, he just wants to entertain the prince - but he also needs to stop the suicide - Amusa "lost hat in a riot" - Pickings dismisses Amusa from duty for the evening and gets ready to leave himself. - They are nervouse - Pickings runs away - Olunde is there and recognized jane -Olunde and jane look well - Egunge is hot, but worth is, the costume - Descecrater's ancestral mask - Olunde speaks like a westerner - Jane apologizes for welcoming Olunde home with news like this, but Olunde says he finds the captain's sacrifice inspiring. - Olunde asks if the captain's sacrifice was worth it to save the hundreds of people living around the harbor, and Jane doesn't have an answer. - Olunde still adhered to the Yoruba belief - Jane says that if he's spoken to Joseph, Olunde must know what Pilkings is trying to do for Olunde and for his people. - Olunde doesnt' know whats going on with his father - Olunde new the king was death and the Elesin would die - Olunde needs to stop pilking from stopping Elesin - Olunde is home to burry his father - Even more offended, Jane says that the ritual of the king's horseman committing suicide is still barbaric and "feudalistic." - Olunde says he doesn't really care what it is, but he knows now that white people are fantastic at surviving - Olunde wants the white to kill the whites - Olunde thinks ball is silly in the middle of a war - Young men dying in thousands - Yoruba let the English do what they want so why to the English want to stop the Yoruba - With genuine surprise, Olunde says that he fully intends to go back to England and finish his training after he buries Elesin. - Olunde says it's over; Elesin is dead now. - The aide-de-camp shows that he's extremely racist in the way that he speaks so rudely to Olunde - Jane asks Olunde to stay, even though Olunde says he wants to go see Elesin before his body goes cold. She sends the aide-de-camp away - Jane doesn't understand, cant communicate with Olunde - He's been thinking only of what he must do, as the person tasked with performing the rites over Elesin's body - He steps into Jane and Olunde's line of sight, jumps when he notices Olunde, and sends Jane to fetch the aide-de-camp. - Police won't let anyone scene - Olunde thinks he's doing a task that only he can - It is, and Pilkings asks for the keys and a strong guard at the bottom of the hill, so that the sound of a riot won't carry to the house and alarm the prince. - Pilkings might be lockign Elesin up and the riot won't be there - Prison once held slaves bound for North America - Elesin actully isn't dead - Elesin failed to die - Pilkings is causing a riot - Pilkings gives the order and the constables let Elesin go. Elesin collapses at Olunde's feet. Olunde looks at Elesin and says that he doesn't have a father anymore. - With another low bellow, Elesin breaks away from his captors and runs until he sees Olunde. At this point, he stops dead. - He calls Elesin an "eater of leftovers" and walks away.

"Chike's School Days" by Chinua Achebe Notes

- -father amos, mother Sarah - baby boy brought joy into house - last names means "the mind at last is at rest" - only son - 5 daughters - brought up in the way of the white man - hymn and prayer first thing in morning - sarah taught her children not to eat in their neighbor's house because they offered their food to idols, children must play together and share food - Neighbour offered Yam to CHike, he was only 4 at the time, he said no, neighbor was mad, but controlled herself, and said that Osu was full of pride nowadays thank to the white man - Osu could not raise his shaggy head in the presence of the free born - slave to gods of the clan - he was to be spat on - could not marry a free born - count take tiesl of his clan - buried in the Bad Bush - Osu child could even look down his nose at a free- born and talk about threaten fodo - father was not originally an Osu, but married one in the name of christianity - not common for that to happen - new religion gone to his head, palm wien, some people drink and remain sensible. others lost sense in their stomach - Mrl Brown was the only one who supported Amos the father in his marriage venture - he was a white missionary, highly respect by the people because of a dispensary he ran - told widowed mother that he taken the name of Elizabeth, - shok nearly killed her - she didn't want amos to marry her - Diviner was. a man of great power and wisdom - an of the four eyes - Elizabeth appear he cast his stringed cowries, -- son had joined the white man's religion - those who gathere anti infest faggos much be prepared for the visit of lizards - cowries in his magic string, wrote on a bowl with sand - Ancestry were angry - Elizabeth performed the rites, son remained insane and married osu girl whose name was sarah - Elizabeth renounced old religion and return to her people - Young boy, chike wen to village school - right hand coun now reach his left ear, ld enough to tackle the white man's learning -liked school uniform - remembers songs his elders siterst sna - young so he was sent to religious class where they sang and dances -sang in english as well - ten green bottle song was his favorite - first year passed, promoted to the infant school, more serious nature - primary school, individual character began to show - strong hatred for arithmetic, but loved stories and songs - like the sound of english words though they conveyed no meaning to him - "periwinkle' - fairly land 'constellation' was another - his teacher liked long words - procrastination is a lazys man's apology - teare erudition showed itself in every subject taught - method of seed dispersal - 5 methods - like teachers vocab - magical new world through language

"The Headstrong Historian." Canvas Notes

- Appears first in The New Yorker magazine in June of 2008--50 years after Things Fall Apart is first published. It can be read as a tribute to that novel, and an extension of some of its concerns into feminist concerns. - Names (Obierka in Achebe is the good friend of Okonkwo, the main character. The Okonkwo family has a daughter who is a candidate for Obierka's second wife. - An Okoye (one of the cousins in "HH") appears as a character in TFA. One of the head missionaries in TFA is also a Mr. Brown. - Perhaps most importantly, the book written by the District Commissioner, here reduced to an essay in a collection (a sly joke from Adichie) appears here and her historical project aims at a revision of this fictional text. - The main issue in TFA is balance between what is seen as the male and female principles of life. Obierka is balanced-- - he enjoys playing the flute but also is capable of hard work (already giving out seed yams to sharecroppers). As in TFA, a paradise is not depicted. The social flaw here comes in the shape of Obierka's grasping and envious cousins. - As with "Chike's Schooldays," there is a secondary concern that runs through the beginnings of the story--a concern about the fertility of the women (or the men?) of a certain family. We see how important it is for a man to leave behind descendants so when he becomes an ancestor he can be honored.

Chinua Achebe (1930-2013)

- Best know African writer today -Nigerian Chinue Arhcebe -work has made respected and prophetic figures in Africa and the west - Western countries admire her as a major writer - helped create the African postcolonial novel, a complex narrative voice that questions cultural assumptions with subtle irony and compassion from bicultural experience - born in Ogidi, 5th of 6 children - he/his father was a teacher for church missionary society and his wife was also -their parents christened him after prince Albert husband of queen victoria - two cultures coexisted in Ogidi - African social custom and traditional religion and the other, British Colonial authority and Christianity - he found himself curious about both "at the crossroads of cultures" - Attend church, in English - ready books in father's library, church-related books - listened to traditional Igbo stories from mom and sister - secondary school, prestigious, took advantage of the library -identified with the white narrator rather than the black inhabitant - entered university college, medicine scholarship - -changed to liberal arts to combine English and religion studies - saw a sharp focus on the distorted image of African culture offered by British colonial literature - Nigerians describes as violent savages with passionate instincts and simple minds - changed to his Indigenous name Chinua, meaning"my spirit come to fight for me" - started writing at university - articles and sketches f, campus papers, short stories, - the first novel was an attempt to counteract the situation so English literature about Africa by describing the richness and complexities of traditional African society - became the first classic work of modern African fiction- translated into 9 languages -worked as a radio journalist in Nigeria - director of external service as Voice of Nigeria - shared national identity through broadcasting - WWII - British Colonial rule to Nigerian Civil war 1969-70 - young Igbo officers overthrew gov, then 6 months later thousand of Igbos were killed and driven out - my wife and kid fled to eastern Nigeria - taking a post of senior researcher at the University of Nigeria - the war ended soon after, travel to Europe and North America to win support for Biafra - poems about war won the commonwealth poetry prize in 1972 - professor of literature in Nsukka - car accident, then returns to writing and teaching in New York and Brown university - writing emphasized an author's social responsibility - contrast between European art for art's sake - communal art - celebrate art as a cultural process - novelist, poet, essayist, found and editor of two journals, lecturer, and active representation

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie Canvas Notes

- Born 1977 in Nigeria (Nsukka) to a family of academicians. - - - Lived on campus of the University of Nigeria. Advanced schooling mostly in the U.S. - Fame goes beyond that of a literary artist. Her Ted Talks are interesting and important. "The Danger of a Single Story" (2009) is a profound cautionary story of not getting sucked in by stereotypes (or not thinking we have a firm grasp on the situation in Nigeria from reading a handful of stories and plays). - A highly recommended half-hour to spend.Her TED talk "We Should all be Feminists" (2013) is a profound and highly influential talk on gender constructions and on anger. - Of course she will forever be linked with an American singer named Beyoncé, who sampled bits of the "Feminist" TED talk in a song, "Flawless." 5 million to 93,000,000. - Purple Hibiscus. Growing up Catholic in Nigeria with an autocratic father.Half of a Yellow Sun. Adichie's highly researched and highly personal account of the Biafran Civil War. (Cannot recommend this too highly). - The Thing Around Your Neck. Collection of riveting short stories from various periods of Nigerian experience and the experience of being African Black in America.Americanah. - A lengthy novel about being Black and African in America (also, for a secondary character, in London) whose ideas were sown in the short stories.

Chinua Achebe Class Notes

- Considered by Adichie to be an honored literary ancestor - Wrote "Things Fall Apart, the gateway novel to world literature for many people - University of Ibadan - reading literature about Africa - African people are represented as savages with no language, childish and conquerable, and he doesn't recognize the people in the books as the people he grew up with - The map of Africa was considered a white space - Literature and history in Africa were said not to exist - Achebe wanted to write Africa from the inside to show that Africa does have a past - History does exist - a lot of primary African languages aren't meant to be written -wants people to understand that in his tribe are marriage rituals - rely on diplomacy - Agricultural system that is arcane - forms of government in the tribe - The Europeans are the ones that came in and said they were savages and needed to accept their systems - Palm oil became a values commodity - People wanted to accept Christianity as a valuable tool - left his manuscript on the back of a taxi cap, didn't get published for a while, then after years it got published, then African literature as we know it was born - Periwinkle -

Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) Canvas Notes

- First book published in 1953. Her most recent work in 2012. Nearly 60 years of publishing! Nobel prize in 1991. - The setting of "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off" is rural South Africa in the last years of official apartheid. It appears in Harpers Magazine in August of 1988. - The story is in 3rd person point of view, with privileged access to Van der Vyer's thoughts. Key words: Afrikaner, Afrikaans, apartheid. Colored. - Jewish, her Lithuanian father and English mother moved to South Africa, he became a gem dealer - didn't like school so she learned by herself - publishing short stories when she was in her mid-teens - Apartheid: a legislative legal separation of races instituted in south Africa insisted in 1948n and went on until the first free election where black people could vote - books only published in America and Africa - everyone loved her so it was hard to persecute her for her writing - created an awareness of South Africa under apartheid that was necessary - she won a Nobel price before any black person had everyone, Afrikaner: an Afrikaans-speaking person in South Africa, especially one descended from the Dutch and Huguenot settlers of the 17th century. Afrikaans; The language that is spoken by the Afrikaner, descended from dutch, Colored: Varieties of the hierarchy of racial equality - Black could not date a white person - Black was African heritage -Colored was mixed race, but there weren't supposed to be mixed-race people - immigrants from India arrived in Africa for opportunities, Gandhi lived his early years in Africa, trained people about nonviolence - The only reason they wanted to learn Afrikaans was so that they could know what their servants wanted them to do, - Attitude of farmers and other black appear on every line

Ama Ata Aidoo

- From Ghana, Ama Ata Aidoo has established herself as one of the foremost voices exploring the situation of women in post-colonial Africa. -She was afforded the kind of education afforded a chief's daughter in newly independent Ghana, and has used this education to good avail, producing her first play at the age of 22 -becoming Ghana's Minister of Education, but opposition from conservative forces drove her out of the office and into self-imposed exile. - She's lived in the U.S. and in Zimbabwe and is one of the founding members of the Women's World Organization for Rights, Literature, and Development. - In the literature on women in Africa, the issue of the exploitation of women by "the big man" in African government and business is common -

Death and the King's Horseman: Act 5

- Pilkings insists he did his duty and doesn't regret it, but Elesin says that he won't regret it until later. - He says that Pilkings has no reason to worry, as he was supposed to die at a specific moment during the night, and that moment passed a long time ago. - Elesin began to follow the moon to the after life - Elesin tells Pilkings that he doesn't blame him, even though he stole Olunde and sent him to England and then stopped Elesin from fulfilling his destiny. - Elesin didn't see it coming - Olunde doesn't think everything is lost - He wants to come and receive Elesin's blessing and say goodbye. - Doesnt' want to be honored as olunde father - Jane runs in - Pilkings and jane run off - Pilking will never understand why Elesin had to die - Elesin wants to blame the bride - Elesin says that she was the last gift from the land of the living, and her body made it far more difficult to cross over to the afterlife. (he's an ass hole) - Note from Olunde - There will be rioting is Olunde doesnt' get his way - Prince is visiting now - He also points to the guards and says that Pilkings already has his honor, as well as the honor of his people - Pilkings shows Iyaloja a line on the floor, tells her not to cross it, and instructs the guards to whistle if she does. He leads Jane away. - Still thinks Elesin will die - Fixing the situation comes dwon to Elesin - Olunde tried to fix the situation by dying - Iyaloja points out that she warned him, but Elesin says that an "alien hand" poisoned his will to die and stopped him from following through. - Her comment about the ancestral mask has to do with the way that the Yoruba interact with the egungun. The ancestors speak through the costumes, so expressing fear through the mask is inappropriate. - Iyaloja does over the lines, guards blow whistle - Metaphor of the Plantain - They are movies elesin tomorrow - She tells him that Elesin understands what happens when a king dies. - King will feel betrayed - Time for Olunde to go - She asks that Pilkings let Elesin complete this final duty. - Group is jsut women - Aide-de-camp things the women are powerless - The women enter, chanting and carrying a long cylindrical object on their shoulders. It's covered in cloth. - He says that at that point, Elesin told the praise-singer that he already found the path to the afterlife. - Now, Elesin's horse and his dog have gone before him, and he's left eating the world's leftovers. - Elesin is performing the rights for the dead son Olunde - Olunde has given his life to Elesin - Elesin stares at Olunde for a moment before flinging the chain of his shackles around his neck and strangling himself. - Elesin kills himself with. chain - Iyaloja says that this is what Pilkings gets when he messes with the lives of strangers, wears clothes reserved for the dead, and then expects to not have blood on his hands. S - When Pilkings moves to close Elesin's eyes, Iyaloja shouts at him to stop and nods to the bride. The bride steps into the cell, closes Elesin's eyes, and pours dirt over each of his closed eyelids. Iyaloja leads the bride away, telling her to forget both the dead and the living and to concentrate only on the unborn.

Death and the King's Horseman: Act 2

- Pilkings, Amusa - The costumes are upsetting him - Amusa is a Muslim and shouldn't be shocked - Amusa forgot that the egungun are powerful - Pilkings is disappointed that Amusa believes in any "mumbo-jumbo" - Pilkings is a police officer if he doesn't follow orders - He can't speak of death to a person in uniform death - this is just one way that Pilkings is profiting from the people he's oppressing here -Amusa explains that he arrested the people who were making trouble, but he didn't touch the egungun and must treat the egungun with respect. - Elesisn plan to comits death pernative custom whcih is a criminal offense - Jane asks if they'll skip the ball because of this, but Pilkings says he'll just have Elesin arrested. - They are jumping to murder instead of suicide -Death should be avoided - Jane and Pilkings don't understand - Amusa is acting strange -Drumming in town is plaing him nervous - as separate and distant from the natives as Pilkings would like to be, he's actually rather tuned into life in Nigeria - Three or four years ago, Pilkings helped get Elesin's son, Olunde, to England to study medicine. - Jane asks Pilkings and Joseph whether Olunde was Elesin's oldest son. Joseph says that Olunde was, and because of that, Olunde isn't supposed to leave. Jane confirms that the role of the hor -Picking is happy he got Olunde out - or he might have to die also - jane is more in tune with customers - Jane and Pilkings are married - "Elastic family" -Volume of drumming continues - Calling holy water nonsense shows that Pickings isn't just being rude about Yoruba religion—for him, all religion is silly and doesn't hold much sway for him. - He's mostly interested in Christianity as a way of controlling and "Westernizing" the native population, - Like insulting the virgin mary in front of a catholic - He insists that he's not responsible for monitoring potential suicides, and it'll be a good thing when Elesin is gone. - jane says that hells stop the suicide - As Jane walks away to change, Pilkings shouts that he'll look extremely foolish if the drumming is just about marriage and he interrupts Elesin on his honeymoon. - He tells Jane to put supper away and says that they can still go to the ball. Pickings explains that he's told Amusa to arrest Elesin and lock him up in his study, - He tells Jane to put supper away and says that they can still go to the ball. - He's not fully committing to either, and is only trying to arrest Elesin at all because he knows it'd get him in trouble if he didn't do anything about it.

Wedding at the Cross Notes

- Poor worker - Want to marry rich girl - He gets interrogated by her father - He feels like he is being killed - He gets a job working on lumber - He impregnates her - He leaves - He comes back - He goes to war -Have second child -Leaves again - He comes back -Very engaged int eh christian church -He changes his name -She wants the old version of him back - Wedding - She says no - She wants "his original name"

"In Camera"-Nawal El Saadawi

- Starts out with a girl falling, the reader can't see or hear -impressionistic, vague, description of what is happening -Narrator has lost a lot of blood or in the dark -we can only see what the narrator sees -She's been kept in the dark for a long time -126 Days -She's been injured -She's been turned into a kind of inhuman thing, animal -Difficulty thinking -Pleasure from being able to just sit down -Sit down=pleasure -Intellectual reason: she describes how sitting proves that she is still a human - She can't find god because she "has been reduced to an animal" - -The story centers around a young girl who is now on trial having been exposed to some of the more brutal kinds of torture imaginable. -It is also a family story, since the mother and father at least, and maybe the little sister, are in attendance at the trial. -Judges meeting "in Camera" -in-camera- take trial back into the secret room, taking fro, the room where people can watch proceeding, to was only the officials are in the room -Fictional Monarchy -gallery of onlookers applaud at the description - moved into camera due to cheering -supposedly originating from the girl, of the country's dictatorial leader as "stupid" -Omniscient narrator with four privileged perspectives: the girl, her mother, her father, and the judge and other officials presiding. -Plausible deniability -The first paragraph is almost abstract and uses synaesthesia to show the assault on the senses, senses which are in a damaged condition. -Body is broken, described in a collection of parts. "she felt the seat with the palms of her hands," "the muscles of her face relaxed," "her lips curled into a feeble smile," etc. -preoccupation with the animal -Eyes round and bulging like a frog's, nose curved like a hawk's beak, etc. -Cap of a shoe, drawn on the wall, above the judge's head - Father has progressive notions about rulers of the country -"This guy was decadent and adulterous", but -Wants to laugh - When Leila Al Fargaini first speaks, -she used to see the sun and walk on two feet -Leila means, night or beauty -Slit her finger and hold the pen down the middle -Egyptian mythology - Monster didn't go away, the monster stayed on her body - Felt a blinding light - Can't think about herself anymore - Fell like a stone in silence: the word "Stupid" -Seque: Head moved as they have done before - Torture by young women - Celebrated for vision and bravery, ruler for being stupid, -That is my daughter, I gave birth to her, she is a national hero -Father just wants reward and heroism -But moments later stories of her violent rapes are rehearsed, and shame overwhelms him, his own name is now unutterable, and he is the social being who believes that this kind of shame is unbearable. -End of the story: they took her back to where she had been before (not positive light) -Looks for mom using the sense of smell, the smell of grass, body in a bad state Mother and father perspective -dragged away from her mother after trial -crowd laughed at her -grandmother called her ugly -Jumping of POV, Lelah to mother, to Lelah, to father -Officials argue that the judge repeated her words -Means the judge is stupid to even repeat it

Chike's School Days Class notes- Chinua Achebe

- important that he was raised in the way of the white student - But saying that, means that it's a village person's persona It- Not a negative thing that he is raised in the way of a white family - Family comes from the Asu cast - If Chike was not a Christian convert he wouln't be allowed to take water or go to school - he is an untouchable - His conversion to the ways of a white man was freedom - Chike is adorable, he's like us because he loves learning, he likes music and words, linguistics, he likes literature - He can put his hand over his head and touch his ear, that's how he knows he is old enough to go to school - Teachers made up songs so that they could learn about Ceasar - Lowest cost in the Igbo hierarchy was allowed to attend school, Chike was in this cast - the chicken had lots of older sisters - Chike's birth, John Chika and, Obiajulu "the mind, at last, is at rest". - First son in the squad of daughter - my mother used to tell the animal stories to him -Achebe was able to incorporate both types of stories in his work - We think of the village of the children as uncommon - Something infused in chike at home - Early Christian intent on - Asu - His father was an original Christian and dhe decided to marry an Asu women names, Sarah - Caused his mother, Old Elixebeth to reject Christianity, and her son - Didn't like the mixed marriage between his cast and ASU - Returned to the faith of her people - Wandered from the main story- - oral storytelling - School gradually educated the people - quieting refrain - Teacher would take a whip and hit the children - Once they started learning English it got interesting - 10 green bottles of beer don't the wall (translation) - Chike is adorable, - Loves stories and songs - a strong sense of arithmetic - like the sound of English words - Periwinkle - Constellation - Explosive mechanism -Impressed by the teachers, fairyland quality - Once there was a wizard song - strange magical new work - Olunde: when he se Jane and Simon wearing the mask, it doesn't bother him outwardly, but it does on the inside, he's not surprised, because they haven't respected it in the past. He knows the British practices enough that he understands they won't be respectful to any African religious practices - Speaking Youruba in the market palce

Egypt

- in camera - limitations on the ability to express and preve the poor women who is on trial - She described the large pictures of the dictator above the judge, - first see the toe caps of the shoes then looks up the picture - mentions of body deprived of human existence - makes comparisons of humans to animals - POV of mother and POV of father who goes on a rollercoaster ride - POV of the judges at the tribunal The Women's swimming pool - wants to see ocean - setting it starts - Resolution and the end - discouraging ending , discouraged to go swimming - but reconnects with grandmother Tourists: - importance of human life with monuments -Shepard and his father, laudry and flags

"The Moment Before the Gun Went Off" Nadine Gordimer Background

- non-linear plot structure. - We learn of the outcome of the accident from the first sentence, but the details of what happened are presented gradually, following the line of thought of the main character. -The main character is Marais Van der Vyver, an Afrikaner farmer, who also turns out to be the father of the black boy he accidentally killed. The main focus point of the story is his inner conflict between the social norms he has internalized and his grief at Lucas' death. -rural part of South Africa, in the early 1990s, -The social setting explores racism and segregation, as well as the conflict between the white farming community and activists in the final days of apartheid. It also explores interracial relationships. -third-person narrator who appears to have omniscient traits. However, the story is told mainly from Van der Vyver's perspective. -The language is informal, and the tone is almost conversational. Because the story lacks dialogue, it seems like a monologue or a verbal retelling of the story -Among these, Nadine Gordimer played a prominent part in her writing. Her political visions of a post- apartheid South Africa led to the banning of several of her books. -Marais van der Vyver, a white South African, shoots one of his black farm labourers and kills him. The death attracts considerable publicity, and Marais soon discovers there are a lot of people who have their own interpretation of the events. But there is one fact they could never guess - and which he can never tell them.

Background on "Chike's School Days" by Chinua Achebe

- published the year of Nigerian independence, - the story of a child with dual inheritance like Achebe - the boy has 3 names, john, Chike, Obiajulu "the mind, at last, is at rest" - about to enter a transformative experience in a Christian school -learn English - English blended with Igbo vocab - linguistic pluralism of modern African experience - demonstrated the existence of a diverse society that i otherwise concealed behind language barriers - African audience is younger schooled readers, fluent in English, readers, like Chike - the story focuses less on school than on his background -education turns out to be the product of his paternal grandmother's conversion to Christianity and his father's marriage to an outcast women - his story tells the tale of a schoolboy and the historical change it was on 3 generation -

Death and the King's Horseman canvas Notes

- shows an Africa that is in transition, affected by modernization, the colonial presence of the British in Nigeria, advances in Science, and the difficulty of sustaining traditions developed in a past age. - It is stylized, using dance, song, parable, and enigmatic turns of speech to get its point across. - Students might approach it as a kind of establishing of the atmosphere of the play, in the setting of the marketplace, so central to village life in Yoruba culture, and in the "song of the Not-I bird," meant to demonstrate the willingness and readiness of Elesin, The King's Horseman, to die for his culture. - The play is based on a tradition followed by one tribal culture, that the right- hand man to the King, the Horseman, be willing to follow his leader into death in order to lead him to the ancestral homelands. - he readiness to die would have been central in a warrior culture, showing the other warriors the nobility and praise that comes to fallen men of battle. It is an attitude towards death that cannot be comprehended by the governing British, and it is this incommensurability of ideas that forms the central conflict of the play. - having been Horseman in a time of peace, has made his name as a lover rather than a fighter. - We see that the place of the horseman is so revered that Iyaloja (the chief woman of the marketplace) is willing to sacrifice he own son's bride for a momentary happiness for Elesin. (She does so not without misgivings about Elesin's resolve, but he quickly reassures her. I think Elesin's question "Must you be so blunt" (1062) is the most telling harbinger of his future failure). -

The Women's Swimming Pool - Hanan Al-Shaykh

-"The Women's Swimming Pool" is the story of a young girl who has been raised in a remote place, - whose imagination has been inspired by images of the sea. -When sets out with her grandmother for her holy grail—the swimming pool for women in the center of Beirut. -Her journey is delayed by tradition, by conventions of sociability, and finally, by the realization that her family connections, -particularly to her old and ailing grandmother, will always find her tethered to the traditional life of women in the Arab world. -Beginning is to show how clustered, circumscribed her existence is -only knows the tobacco fields -parents have died somehow -grandmother is very close to her -Practice of Islam -Existence is constrained, but her imagination is not -Wonder at things like the idea of the sea -Colored ball like a magic lantern (snow glob) -Inspired her imagination -given her an uncontrollable turning to see the sea -Place where she can swim in the sea "Women's swimming pool" -Story is about the poor girl's tension -Wants to see the sea, and swim in it with other women -Everything seems to be leveled against this goal - -Tradition in the countryside and modernity near the sea -knocking on grandmother's door but she isn't home -End: Found the passage to the swimming place, she sees her grandmother praying in the street, her grandmother's weight was on her, so that affects her desires to go to the swimming pool

Mous- Class Notes

-Born in Sweden -moved to queens when he was 3 -When he was a teen he started studying mad magazine -Full of humor -Making crazy trading cards -used to make Garbage pail cars when he was a kid -Influences by the underground comic scene -Contributed to the anthology called "funny animals"- -3 page beginning of mous, people found it interesting so he made it a project -part of the project was interviewing his fterh -after would tell him stories of Auschwitz -Father used every instrument at hand to survive -Taught a guy English when there, more solid wanted to learn so it helped to keep him alive -used any bits of knowledge to extract from his brain -watched people on how to fix shoes, made a shoe repair guy -Author started Raw magazine with his wife, She is the designer for The New Yorker, -twin towers, collapse -Mous, the way that he chose to depict the people as animals rather than humans is to make a little distance, which might be too much to take -Mice for the jew -Germans are cats -polish were pigs (not happy) -French are frogs -Americans are dogs -Wife is also in the camp with him -Camp next to women's camps -Both stories use the organization to describe how they got the goods -I'll "organize you some shoes" -Uses bread to get boot fixed, but gets rewarded with sausage -Pannels filled with Arty and dad in their discussions -Counting crakers, not pills -Arty trying to get letters to their girlfriend -Trying to save enough to get her -Sometimes there is an actual dog or rat -"gas was real" eye witness

"This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen"-Class Notes

-Camp subject to disinfecting -Shave off hair - no clothes -Zyklon B: Thing they use to make the gas in the chamber -Solution is used to kill lice -Trying to stay cool on a blistering hot day -Concentration locker -28,000 women stripped naken and roaming outside eating barracks -Canada Work Team -Job is to unload the transports and grab all the stuff It-Filled with way too many people -many die on the way -Death Boxes -They get to keep the marmalade and food that people carry with them -Eating bread, onion, evaporated milk -People emaciated, ribs sticking out all over the place -Being sent packages that have material that reminds him of home -Bacon and candies -Henri and this guy/Narrator are concerned that there won't' be any more transports coming in, and the food will disappear -They are hoping for more Jews to be sent to the crematorium -Stink bodies -Cheeks hollow -rabbi, wants to shut him up, will take him to the oven sooner if he keeps yelling -Lives off of capital investments -Greeks in the camp are considered to be a lesser quality of survivorship -French and polish guy to alright -Gets invited to the ramp, "why not' -

Art Spiegelman's "Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began"-Notes

-Comic Book -Needs a new shoemaker -Yelled to make new shoes -Had shoes ready for Gestapo -Cigarettes -Steals -package -Chased by guard -Grandfather had to stop sending packages -Shows the gas chamber -Father tells son about what happened

Two Sisters Notes

-Cover on Typewriter - Mercy wants a unviersity boy - Other girls look at her with eyes like knives - Driver can drop her - Local bus with dirty seats that take her to school - She doesn't like this - She wishes she could sleep deep and wake up when she has a car ride to work - Pair of black shoes - Sister is pregnant with a second child -Connie: fingers are dead from typing - Sister came home early, she was tired of living -Mercy wants a husband of her own, children - Connie says people are running after her - Date with joe, funny -Mercy goes to the bedroom - Connie notices mercy's new shoes -How did she buy the shoes? last wee she dints' have enough money to live on - Sad, but laughter is always best -

Albet Campus (1913-1960)

-Disadvantages in Algeria -Journalist, a resistance fighter in WWII, iconic literary figure, and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1957 - Aware of the basic level s of human existence and the struggles of the poor -explains the raw experience of life that humans share the bond between them - a sympathetic yet critical eye on the tension of his day. -I observed the soviet union from afar, and the bloody battle for Algerian independence -you can respond to the oppressive system without becoming oppressed. - Born November 7 19143 to a would of poverty and light in Monday, Algeria, a colony of France -second son in for family -Father dies early in WWI -Mother was illiterate untreated illness left her deaf with a speech impediment -lived with mom, uncle, and grandmother -working-class -brother and him raised by a strict grandmother, his mother cleaned -In his work images of the Med landscape and sea and blazing sun argued. -showed compassion for those whose labor was unrecognized. - Athlete and scholarship recipient -Studied philosophy at the University of Algiers before getting tuberculosis at 17 - Corroded his health -still got a degree -journalist and esayist -collective theatre, wort and adapted plays - joined community part, but withdrew after a year -publishing house Charlot -political commentary on administrative management during a famine, got suspended, and refused a work permit -LEft Algeria and published the first famous book -WWII-worked in Paris at Gallimard publishing -Didn't have a higher value on the ideology than its practice effects -open anti-community led to a spectacular break with Sartre -attached violence of the French colonial regime -didn't live to witness the algerian conflict in 1962 - DIED IN A CAR ACCIDENT in 1960 - death contributed to his fame -knows for his analysis of 2 fundamentals of existentialism -Nobel acceptance speech emphasized artificial and necessary human art that art imposes 0art shapes human perspective

Ngugi wa Thiong'o

-First successful English language novelist from East Africa - stopped writing in English -Africans should use native tongues -kikuyu=language he wrote in -experiment style to form of socialist realism and satire - imprison fed for his criticism of the Kenyan regime - a symbol of the resistance of African writers - like through Mau Mau uprising - my stepbrother killed in the rebellion - first, play in college - inspiration from modern classics of western literature - joseph Conrad -Christian for a brief period - left Kenya to live in London - novelist and playwright - currently a professor of English and comparative literature - explore the disastrous consequences for Africans of contact with the British - Christianity plays an ambiguous role -

Notes on Death of the Kings Horseman

-Going into town, market - Elesin will soon die - King is dead, - Elesin tells story of not eye bird which flew around people who were about to die - recruit them to other side - bird will fly around person so its not their time to die, - Bird flying around means your about to die -Bird comes to Elesin meaning he can't escape death - Iyaloja, women, start talking about how honorable Elesin is - Elesin is offended by this - women are confused why he is offended - they prepare clothes for him, for what is about to happen - Elesin is the king's horseman - he is try9ng to escape death by being mad, they want to let him go - Women understand this - He is a ladies man - Elesin says the girl is engaged to her song - Son as bride, - send women off to get girl -marriage might distract him from duty - He asks if Elesin is certain that there will be someone as skilled as he is at singing Elesin's praises in the afterlife and says that if Elesin needs him to come too, he'll follow -Elesin again praises the market, where the women dote on him and spoil him with fine fabrics and food. -The praise-singer warns Elesin that if he's not careful, the women might weaken his resolve to die, but Elesin says that he wants to die having danced with the women and smelled the smells of the marketplace. - Loves lifek women and the market, wants to spend last horus with thme - Elesin is beloved in the market - Prais singser helps him get to afterlife, - Not-I bird flies around to people, telling them that death is getting close, and everyone--animals included -Iyaloja, the "mother of the market." Iyaloja asks how Elesin feels about the Not-I bird, -Duty to die and welcome the bird -Elesin assures them that when the time comes, he'll eagerly dance toward death to go keep the king company in the afterlife. -When the women tell Elesin that he's a man of honor, however, Elesin tells them to stop. The women worry that they offended Elesin, and Elesin confirms that he's extremely offended - yaloja asks for Elesin to forgive them and tell them what they did wrong. - When Elesin is fully dressed, he stands surrounded by the dancing women. As he catches sight of something offstage, he says that the world is good. - He will leave wrold in a good place - The distraction that caught Elesin's eye—a beautiful young woman -he asks if he is sitll alive - He notes that people would say that if they hid a beautiful woman in a tree, he'd choose that tree to camp under - He reminisces about the time that they caught Elesin with his bride's sister, and Elesin insisted that he was honoring her like a "grateful in-law." - He's a ladies man - love of life is cardnal pleasrues -sleeps with sister in law - Elesin agrees with this and says that it's only through memory that people can defeat death, - wants to travel light -hes honorable so he needs to marry yougn women - What Elesin is referring to, in a roundabout way, is that he'd like to have sex with the bride and conceive a child with her to leave behind after he dies. - selfish and wants to get his way -hey remind Iyaloja that the bride is already engaged to Iyaloja's own son, but Iyaloja says she can't ruin Elesin's final day for him. In order to keep the world in order, she cannot let Elesin die with regrets. -They let Elesin have the young women - He's far more interested in having sex with his bride than he is in dying—something that, on a grander scale, suggests that Elesin is more interested in the pleasures of life than he is in an honorable death.

The Moment Before the Gun Went Off (Nadine Gordimer)

-Marais Van der Vyver shot one of his farm labourers, dead. -There are accidents with guns every day of the week -Happens all the time, not always reported - Van der Vyver knows it will be reported - he, shooting a black man who worked for him will fit exactly their version of South Africa. - News will know - white brutality against blacks - People in the farming community understand how he must feel. Bad enough to have killed a man, without helping the Party's, the government's, the country's enemies, as well. - he will look after his kids -Everyone will look at white man bad -Van De Vyver said black boy was his friend - pray with and church, and work with, but others dont' want to accept that - They now see him as a bad guy - he wants to apologize based on newspapers - brutality case - Captain Beetge know him well, Beetge will not tell anyone that after the brandy, Van der Vyver wept. - He sobbed, snot running onto his hands, like a DIRTY KID -As usual, he called at his shed workshop to pick up Lucas, a twenty-year-old farmhand who had shown mechanical aptitude and whom Van der Vyver himself had taught - Lucas jumped onto the back of the truck - Lucas is the name of the buy -His father had never allowed a loaded gun in the house. -He himself had been taught since childhood never to ride with a loaded weapon in a vehicle. But this gun was loaded. -Lucas helped him signal - drove fast over a pot hole, gun misfired and shot Lucas - on record that that is what happened - he example of black mobs in the towns spreads to the rural areas and the place is burned down as many urban police stations have been -Immorality Act has gone, blacks can sleep with whites - They are part of the security system the farmers in the district maintain, each farm in touch with every other by radio, twenty-four hours out of twenty-four. -It has already happened that infiltrators from over the border have mined remote farm roads, killing white farmers and their families out on their own property for a Sunday picnic. -"it could have been worse." - farmer has provided money for the funeral - Young wife is pregnant "of course' - kids are confused - It is the young wife who rolls her head and cries like a child, sobbing on the breast of this relative and that.- - Mother can't be later than 30 - heavily mature in a black dress between her own parents, parents worked for Van de Vyver - To show the proper respect, as for any white funeral, she is wearing the navy-blue-and-cream hat she wears to church this summer. S -He does not let her clothing, or that of anyone else gathered closely, make contact with him -The moment before the gun went off was a moment of high excitement shared through the roof of the cab -lthough often around the farm the farmer would pass the young man without returning a greeting, as if he did not recognize him -He was sure he had leapt up and toppled - in fright, like the buck. - He didn't think it was possible at first, like why would the bullet pass through is head, didn't think he was dead - They will think he is guilty -"How could they know", -The young black callously shot through the negligence of the white man was not the farmer's boy; he was his son. -You kinda feel bad for him, he didn't know about the gun, his father never keep a loaded gun in the house - the captain is helping him and they describe his state, crying like a child, embarrassing to the captain, because e men don't behave like that -only a black worker that dies, but he was super affected - he knows the story will. fit the presses version of "South Africa" but they don't know what the reality of the situation is - a radical moment that is gaining momentum - but somitems hel walk by lucas an dnot even know him

Background on "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen"

-Narrated in an imperial tone by one of the prisoners -Birkenau extermination camp (largest of the 3 camps at Auschwitz) -Described how he survived -Prisoners are stripped of their belongings when they arrive in railway cattle cars -1500 polish jew, former inhabitants of near cites -most travelers are burned right away -systematic dehumanization of the camps -Prisoner equated with lice, naked -ate moldy bread -arbitrary rules and punishment, malnutrition, exhaustion -identities reduced to numbers on their arms -need to become a cog in the machine to survive -the story has brutal realism -passion oratory -systematic slaughter -Narrator, Tadeusz is modeled off the author - has a job, assist the kapos or senior prisoners who organize the camps -burden of guilt -shocked post war audience with uncoupling honesty -human beings -Dispassionate tone of narrator, mass murder, -described a world of antiheros, -what it means to be human

The Guest Clas Notes

-Schoolteacher gets visited by policemen, he doesn't want to do what the policemen ask, after 2 meals the prisoner makes his choice - 4 rivers of France were drawn on the blackboard, flowing for the past 3 days (people in other countries had to learn about french, but not the location) - Horse leading the Arab tied to the Horse -This is the way the region was, cruel to men - Balducci was holding the horse to no hurt the Arab - Balcucci is a corsican, from coriscan , an island north of sardinia - the solitude and the silence had been hard for him to these wasteland people only by stones. a thin layer of soil accumulated in the hollows would be scraped out to enrich paltry village gardens. -Arab not escaping, he just leaving to pee -Vast landscape he had loved, doesn't love anymore -Dau is paid by the French who consider him to be one of them -Daru refused balcuccis's orders because Balducci says that he's just a school teacher that is not his job, but in wartime people need to take on all kinds of jobs

Maus-Canvas Notes

-The humans as animals give a kind of distance for the reader to the very grim subject matter. -The odd personality quirks of Vladek Spiegelman, Artie's father, from whom Spiegelman hears stories of the camps, become understandable in light of what he has been through. -Part of the excerpt chosen mirrors Borowski, in the ways he is able to be in some contact with his wife while in Auschwitz. -focuses on "organizing" goods to aid in survival in a horrific environment. -the reader gets the depiction of some aspects of Auschwitz and the relationship between Art and his father. - Spiegelman wrote and illustrated is In the Shadow of No Towers, a personal tale of the events of 9/11.

"This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen"-Notes Part 2

-air rushes into the train -People squeezed together -people trying to breath -yelled at to take belongings and dump them into a pile -People going to their death must be perceived, don't tell them, pretend you don't know -Luggage pours from the train like a river trying to find a bed -belonging ripped away -Women get whipped -Coats, handbags, jams, sausages, etc. pile -women separated from children -healthy, young men go camping -red cross van, with killer gas, drives back and forth -marked how many cards in the order book -16 trucks=1000 people -Serials number 131-2 -4.5 million marks in the book -Train is empty -told to clean it up -carry the dead out -Taking them to death -Dead kids -Women "my pore boy" -Asks if he is a good person - he doesn't feel sorry for them - He's tired, hated them, turn on the weaker - Shut eyes, but can still see the dead and heaps of clothing -people got into trucks and drove away - dreaming -feels like he needs to vomit -Henri wakes him up -Sees women -Beauty -Common dot of the Women, looks over them -Boys have to shave their head -Crates fall open -finds gold and jewelry -Gold goes to ryke -has to go faster -finished and cleans up dirt and filth -Train rolls in -trucks pull up again -unseal train dores -pull off their coats -Small child cries, momma momma - Women wants to live, a child runs after her, she says its not her kid -Another person knocks down the woman, says she shouldn't run from her kid, throws her to the ground -Drinks vodka

"This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen"-Notes Part 3

-girl appears from the train -Likes girl -"where are they taking us" -beautiful breast, blond -Looks at the location -Wears a gold watch on her wrist - she knows - she walks off to trucks -Blond hair flies in breeze -carried out dead infants -babied and naked women -whip slashes him -runs away -rests against rails -sees infirno -Women killed -kick out strey children -4 men have trouble lifting the women -Hot -Driver moves the truck -Girl runs away, she will burn alive -rests against the rails -Guards are watching -he couldn't get the shoes -Drinks coffee with vodka -he can't do another transport, only don't two, but Henri had done it since Christmas -Another transport comes in -Train falls silent -Soldier fires revolver and kills women who left train early. -told to unload -hear pounds -he vomits -wants to return to camp and sleep -sees camp as peace -lights on-ramp glow -they don't know that they will die -all their belongings are useless -they will rip out gold teeth -15,000 -Many trucks drove to the crematorium -Bread, maramalad, sugar -that what they live off of -Sosnawiex-Bedzin was a good transport -Sing at the top of their lungs

Hanan Al-Shaykh Canvas (Lebanon)

-international figure, - Her national allegiance and center is in Beirut, Lebanon. Born into a traditional Shiite family, -she early on experienced the identity as an outsider, as her devout family lived in a neighborhood of cosmopolitan and less strict practitioners. -She's lived in London, Paris, and Saudi Arabia, and has written collections of short stories, novels, and plays, often tackling issues that have made her a controversial figure in the Arab world. -Writer -International figure -Born close to where the girl in the story comes from -Moved to Bay ruth as a young girl -Felt out of place, family wore very traditional religious clothing -Has done 1001 Arabian nights, a novelization of that - Story isn't quite as fascinating. -She wants to discourage people from seeing her as only a feminist - Connect her with Nagib Mahfouz

Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951)-Class Notes

-life filled with sadness and suffering -tormented by the concentration/extermination camps -, then by their memory, - then by the restrictions on writers in his native Poland at the beginning of the Cold War era. -His death of suicide by gas in 1951 seems like the inevitable conclusion of his life's experiences. -His dedication to the art of writing is impressive—he continues to express himself in that medium despite all of the forces aligned against him. -He didn't get 30 years of life to live - when 3 father was taken away by soviet police and put into a workplace -when 5 mothers were put into another work camp -when he was 12 it was time for him to go to boarding school so that he could cheaply go to high school -at 20 he was taken to a concentration/Death/labor camp -Didn't have a family life -Catholic and Polish -Arrested by the Nazis because he wrote a poem, a book of poetry, that was published in polish, which was forbidden by the Nazis -left-leaning, anti-nazi poetry -Found that the girlfriend was missing, he went straight to where she might be (a friend's apartment) and got captured -They could communicate inside the camps -"That was the happiest I was in Auwswitch" -Therefore a few years -People who read these stories objected to the way he presented the prisoners, -Said he was working with the Nazis and benefiting from the good they left -Survive the camps, not being a jew, and being able to live off the Canadian transport - With 2 other writers from Polish -Artist and editor got them out of secondary camp -3 together wrote a compilation of stories -They recognized his talents -What the world needs to avoid another genocide -Had to change his style and method to conform to what soviet publications wanted -friends began to get arrested by soviet officials and were taken away -Samizdat: Underground distribution center -Alexander Solzhenitsyn -Author hears about the system of power he is a part of, the bad people, and it becomes too much, probably why he kills himself -"cog in the machine, that doesn't get affected by the events" -Gives the crushed invents to the women -An older woman says to give them to her -She shows him a little sympathy -" you poor boy" -Women notice that what she is doing is sole killing as well -Other women, don't want to knowledge her child because she can go to work and not the crematorium -she is taught a lesson by being beaten up by a Russian guy -Both go to the crematorium, burned alive with the corpses -Takes courage to describe these things -Style: Visual, a matter of fact, reporting, Multi-lingual, used to duplicate the confusion they were thinking, several phrases in french, german, and camp lingo -Used Esperanto as a secret language, to eliminate the difference to have a universal language -Breakneck pace -Interludes where his own perception and perceptiveness get highlighted -"I look up, but the face swims before my eyes, dissolves due and transparent, melts into the mines tress and the sea of people" -unseasonable things he is forced to see -"Are we, good people" -I feel no pity, how can I be a good person and feel no pity"-calls it healthy -You have to turn yourself into something other than human -Women who arrive with strength: beautiful, blond hair -looks straight into his face and says "why are we here, where are they taking us" -He has to lie to her -right: crematorium -Left: Join other women -She just says, "I'm going to the crematorium" -Glittery green more solid man, metals on, healthy, beefy, contrast between SS officers and the prisoners is so stark -Sense of affirmation for healthy german men -End: Germans sing at the top of their lungs -To the right march, (right, to the death) snaps a command from upfront. We move out of the way

Background on "The Old Chief Mshlanga" by Doris Lessing

-one of her earliest stories, Africa - 1950-1958 -a group of novellas, set in Africa established Lessing as an important interpreter of the colonial experience in Africa - economic infiltration of the country by white settlers, the leadership of Chartered company, under British rule - segregated company policies - a private firm that reules -The land Appropriation act of 1930 - diving the territory into Native and European - Old Chief bridge in the story is not the protagonist, the story only intrudes on the white girl. her head - his tribe only makes existence gradually -by the end, the tribe is gone altogether - girl visiting village -finds it disintegrating into the landscape - "There is nothing left" - intimate description of the lush landscape show that her encounter, brief, though has opened her eyes to an African presence that was initially wasn't able to see - though her altered perspective brings her no closer to the members of the tribe - Old chief was disappeared from tribe -awakening is bleak on that endows her with a sense of loss and responsibility.

Wole Soyinka (1934)

-political activist -play wright -portrays modern Africa in transition, capturing the transformations in life - show tension in the Yoruba world, struggle with modernity -draw on Yoruba and greek myths into a poetic system - violence to britian into material for compelling novels and plays -satire and myth - born in Nigeria - 2nd child in a family with ties to the traditional Yoruba ruling class an educated elite from Christian missionary activity - my father was a Christian clergyman - went to school where my father was headmaster -college in Ibadan - English literature - Royal Court Theatre playwright - combines dialogue in verse and prose with mim and song - TOTAL THEATRE - intrigues modernist and postmodernist - later taught at a university 0 incorporated a lot of Yoruba stuff, songs, dance, story, etc - founded Orisun Theatre, directed lots of plays - Nigeria Politics - turbulent post-independence years - arrested in 1965 for broadcasting a message critical of rigged elections and accused of storing a government radio station - acquitted at his trial for lack of evidence - arrested AGAIN during the civil war for efforts at reconciliation with the rebel regime of Biafra - Prison experience helped him write more stuff - exile in London then later returned to Nigeria - Nobel Prize for literature - apartheid -acceptance speech -a system of racial segregation in Africa - sentences to death under dictator Sani Abacha - a critic of dictatorship in Nigeria and Africa - after 9/11 he spoke against Islamic fundamentalism and racial profiling - US and Nigeria tracer -Yugi and him were both in prison in addition to thadius burros (wrote in the wrong language) -Biafran civil war

Two sister canvas notes

-presents the dilemma facing women in modern Africa using the perspective of the sisters. -On the one hand, there is Mercy, willing to suffer the social criticism of being a "kept woman," consorting with powerful older men in exchange for a measure of financial security and access to luxury goods -Connie, the sister who stays well within the bounds of social propriety, but who is forced to accept the double standard that dictates that her husband may have affairs when he pleases. -difficulty of avoiding the temptation of wealth in an impoverished situation, as even Connie makes a deal with the big man, abdicating her right to judge her sister. -Note that within the story there is a third voice—that of the bay where mercy is parked with her lover. -underlying the difficulties faced by Mercy is the lack of opportunities available for women in Ghana, and that a low paying secretarial assistantship is the most she can expect. -She resorts to the affairs to supplement her meager income, and maybe to have the dream of a much more comfortable future -wants to enjoy her sexual prime--is that clearly a goal fro the young woman? -onnie's troubles come from another place. -The sisters' names imply that they were raised Christian, -Connie has taken the role of dutiful wife, who must put up with her husband's indiscretions for the sake of the family. -Mercy's actions stem from Christian morality and a concern about her sister being "disgraced" by being the consort of a well-known married man. -several stylistic interventions in the story. Shoes sing, a large body of water observes and comments. Interior perspective changes without warning. The function for each of these shifts?

"This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen"-Canvas Notes

-tells the story of the arrival of a prison transport in an indirect way. -It tells the story through the eyes of a young inmate, who feels fortunate to have been chosen for the mission of emptying the train cars, -hopeful to gain some food and other goods for survival. -Working alongside his friend Henri, and others who are hardened to the task, he finds the nature of the work and the vision of suffering it affords to be appalling and, except for the fact that it is happening, incomprehensible. -Some things to look for as you read: -Uses animal imagery to describe humans and their behavior. Look especially at the Greeks who are part of the duty. -Description of the German soldiers. Remember that this comes from a condition of frailty, ill-health, and malnourishment. -The story of the night of the transport is told in episodes. Note the grey-haired woman who agrees to take the infants and her own sympathy for the narrator's position. -The woman refuses to acknowledge her own child, in hopes that she will survive the gas and be put to hard labor instead. -Note the beautiful young woman who refuses to be lied to about her fate, choosing to go with the truck destined for the gas ovens rather than to save herself by opting to work for the Nazis. -Translated by multiple people

"This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen"-Notes Part 1

-walk around naked -clothes cleaned with cleaner/disinfectant -Can't sneak through gate -Sleep on plan boards -28,000 naked women -No food has come in -Sit on top bunk -crunchy bread -Eat what is in access to them -What if there was no food, starve to death, packages -Henri-freind -Rabi in bottom bund reading in hebrew book, yellow/reading out loud -not allowed, will be taken to gas chamber -Elder: yells at Henri to go -Tomatoes and onions come in on transport -Canada-main guy -Runs to gate/barracks/ramp -Yelled at in german -waved ahead in groups of 5 -march fast -ramp surrounded by trees -Wooden shed, flimsy, ugly -wooden beams -load fraits -wipe sweat from faces -sit in shade -Find mildew bread under rails and eat it -Bargaining for food with soldier -Don't' take any money or suits, they will think you are leaving, just get a shirt -'Are you working' -transports all go to crematorium -instruction on how to proceed -cattle carts about to arrive -Soldiers have whips and briefcases -random german words -Discus mail from home -Gravel crunched under their boots -green uniforms -transport is coming -exhausted human faces -stir inside the cars, people want water and air -man in green uniform in glitter, signals to guard, then fire into the train, train car goes silent -told to not steal

"The Old Chief Mshlanga" by Doris Lessing

-white person farm -opening its eyes to curiously on a sun suffused landscape -Sun was a foreign sun - Black people as remote as the trees - Child was taught to take them for granted, servants run to pick up her book - Carried gun as armor against fear -natives couldn't come close to her - made a fool of the natives - tease a small black child for entertainment like a puppy - mother didn't let her talk to black house mates -they'd laugh if servant didnt' understand language or order - 14 years aldo, walking in field, africans came into sight. about to send dogs run after them, held gun, they didn't get off the path -

Background on "Two Sisters" by Ama Ata Aidoo

main character portrayed central tension that interest Aidoo - Conflict between traditional sexual mores and sexual liberation -private vs political conflict -past vs present - Connie and Mercy, take different attitudes to sexual matters and political transformation witnessed in Ghana. -Connie (short for Constance: traditional values, marriage and self reliance -Mercy: enjoy seuxal prime but also intends to profti from her relationship with powerful men. - Realistic literary techniques, starling the reader with bread experimental passages - starts out in 3rd person,but follow mercys perspective until the middle o the sisters convention then it switches to Connie's stream of consciousness. - Formal opposition between 3rd person and connie's first person calls attention to the marl conflict underling the story - Mercy visiting seashore with her boyfriend, narrator personifies the Gulf of Guineas as the god who looks with compassion on Mercy's folly. - Adjusts realistic techniques to her subject matter - story explore the limits and risks of sexual experimentation as they intersect with the turbulent political history of Ghana. - Her sympathetic rendering of the two sisters competing viewpoints demonstrates her subtitles as a chronicler of african life and show why she is a moor voice in african fiction

Ama ata Aidoo Class Notes

1942 -The dilemma of a ghost was her first short stories - about a ghost that goes to the US - Conservative forces forced her out, voluntary exile in Zimbabwe - Exploitation of women by the big man in the African government -Names are US names. Christan names/background, probably have an African name - Mercy: Willing to suffer social criticism, to sleep with an older man, for access to luxury goods, like cars, and rich things, Types job, -Connie / Constance: Sister stays well within the bounds of social propriety, but she has to do a double standard that the husband could have an affair whenever he wants. She is pregnant, husband wants to have sex, so he might leave her, firm moral ground, says mercy should find a husband -Connie questions how mercy was able to get nice shoes - a society where there isn't a way to work one's self up, poverty -Can't go to movies -Wants a comfortable future - Mercy wants a university man -Marcy wants to enjoy her sexual prime, men twice her age and weight -

Doreen Baingana

A Ugandan writer. Law Degree from Makarere University, and Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Maryland. Her primary publication to date is Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe, a collection that includes both "First Kiss" and "Passion." The collection is more like a novel--all of the stories have one of three sisters at their center--there are two stories about Rosa from "Passion." Baingana has two children's books with amusing titles: Gamba the Gecko Wants to Drum, and My Fingers are Stuck. If you are up for another Ted talk, try Baingana's Ted talk on "the role of offensive language in literature." (5 and a half minutes).

How Literature reformulates social problems.

Add complexity. Replace propaganda, didacticism, and conventional moralizing. Comparative Literature. Multiple perspectives on various facets of a problem.

"An Arab Shepherd is Searching for his Goat on Mount Zion." by Yehuda Amichai

Again, shared humanity from different sides, in a shared environment. Optimistic in "the beginning of a new religion in these mountains." -Living people are more important than history

Wole Soyinka (b. 1934) Canvas notes

Among the several Nobel Prize winning authors we read together in this course, Soynika is the only Black African writer to have received that award to date. - Achebe, Soyinka had a deeply Christian family, but also had access to the traditional storytelling of his tradition. - Like Achebe, he attended the University College in Ibadan, after which he entered the University of Leeds in England. - It is in England that he became deeply involved in theater, getting a job that required him to evaluate new plays for the Royal Court Theater in London. - Soyinka takes the traditional role of theater from the Greek and Western tradition and combines it with performative qualities of Yoruba ritual and ceremony, (Yoruba is one of the three major ethnic/language groups in Nigeria), adding some political consciousness that seems to be native to post-colonial Africa. - (Soyinka was himself arrested and imprisoned during the 1967 civil war in Nigeria, accused of collaborating with the rebel Biafrans, held without trial for 22 months). - While Soyinka is celebrated primarily for his two dozen plays, but has also written poems, memoirs, essays, short stories, and novels

Who wrote Maus

Art Spiegelman

Ama Ata Aidoo (Ghana)

Born 1942 - Poet, Playwrite, novelist -documented the rapidly changing roles of women in africa - depicts a society in transition -emphasis on urban life of younger women demonstrated the specific condiciton of the secual reoltion and feminism in afriacn culture - Realistic exploration of women plight in africa with experiment passage that give her stories a universal appeal - Chief daughter - graduated from wesley girls high school, university of Ghana. -First play, The dilemma of a ghost -privileged upbringing - write was a natural occupation - avantage to write form youn age -moved to US, graduated from harvard and stanford -returned to Cape Coast where she published short stories -shared an earlier generations concerts with national liberation, sought african society that would be more respectful for Women's roles. -Active in political things -held position of minister of education in Ghana under Jerry Rawlings -roels opped by conversation forces, so she resigned and moved to Zimbabwe - Helped the Women's World Organization for right to literature and development -taught at brown university from 2003-2010

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Notes

Born 1977 - Contemporary novelist, historical and modern experiences of Nigerians and women - from before colonization through the Biafran war - acute observation of contemporary life and a deep sense of history make her work timeless - novels made into films - a member of the Igbo people - influenced by the Nigerian Civil war -several of her family member died - 5th of 6 kids - new up in Nsukka where my parents forked at the University of Nigeria - my father professor of statistics, mother was the first female registrar - studied medicine there also but later studied in numerous unviesticites in the US - grauated from Eatern Conencitsut - masters in writing - sicne youg age she like Chinua Achebe wiritng - he taugh at he univeristy - She credited the influence of Achebe work in helping her - she read British and American books - blue eyes white skin was her first narrative characters -his work cinviced her that african could be teh subject of fciton, althgouh her aprpeach to affiracn hsitory eas distinctly shaped by her persepctive as a women and a feminist - writes abotu politcal iseuse - personal identiy -writeen essay on suhect as Nigeran and american poltics - prose style is clear, direct and simple - won multi-le honors -

Ngugi wa Thiong'o canvas ntoes

Born James Ngugi, the Kenyan author is a polarizing figure in modern African literature, primarily for his public debate with writers like Chinua Achebe, in which he contends that writing in the language of the colonizing country is tantamount to collaboration with the oppressor. - Ngugi began his own career writing in English, but in 1977 made the decision to switch his language of composition to his native Gikuyu language. He paid a price for this—the new government of independent Kenya had forbidden writing in anything except for English, and Ngugi was imprisoned for almost a year for his transgression. - His prison novel, Devil on the Cross, was composed on prison toilet paper and smuggled out by guards. Ngugi's life is marked by the Mao Mao rebellion that was instrumental in expelling the British from Kenya, and his intellectual life was heavily influenced by Marxism and writers from the radical left.

Art Spiegelman "Maus"

Born in 1948 in Sweden, his family moved to Queens, New York in 1951. He began studying cartooning after being influenced by the humor of Mad Magazine. Begain life as a professional as a teenager, working for Topps Chewing Gum as a developer of cards in the popular Garbage Pail Kids series and also for Wacky Packages. Studied art at the Manhattan High School of Art and Design. -Influenced by and influenced the underground comics series. The artist Robert Crumb had a big impact. Wife is Francoise Mouly, herself an artist on the comics scene. She is the editor for covers of the New Yorker magazine. -Their daughter, Nadia Spiegelman, is director of and contributer to the Toons series of graphic stories for children. -The first appearance of Maus in a three-page piece Spiegelman did for a comics anthology called Funny Animals in 1972. In the early 80s, he continued the story and published a good amount of the work in Raw Magazine, which he founded and edited with Mouly.

Yehuda Amichai Israel Class Notes

Born in Germany Ways to read these poems: Footnotes, context/Biography/Line by Line, Read more, Reread Grew up in a very religious home -Isreal to this day has a mandatory military requirement of 1 year -Service with the Jewish Brigade in WWII -At the time the holland protectorate was moved by the British -British brigade had the Israeli core in it -Popular language 25 years in remission, only emerged in. the late 15th century-Hebrew

Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000) Canvas Notes

Born in Germany as Ludwig Pfeuffer, family migrated into Palestine in 1936. Winds of tragic change strong in Germany at the time. Served with Jewish brigade in WWII. Saw military action as a member of the Palmach, the elite Jewish army, in the Israeli War for Independence, and conflicts in 1956 and '73. The Norton introduction is obliged to give us a little history of Hebrew, the poetical language of Amichai. Hebrew with 2500 years of ceasing to be a spoken language, but used for sacred writings, biblical commentary, and official communication—but not in conversation. Spoken were Yiddish: Germany (Links to an external site.) and Ladino (Links to an external site.). From 17th to 19th century, Hebrew becomes a literary language, and in the 20th Century, with the kind of reverse diaspora (back to the land of Palestine), it becomes the language of Jewish life in Israel. -nation buidling -juxtaposes the monument and ordinary

The Headstrong Historian Class Notes

Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie - Get to experience both the arrival and Europeans and the cost-benefit analysis of the arrival of Europe on this young family - raised in the White man's Ways - Ozo title - the more titles you have, the more prestige you have in the village - To take the OZo title you have to be prosperous enough to give yams and money to the village - so that village can build or give money to widows - Form of redistribution of wealth - Title is an acknowledgment of the village that they are a good person - Didn't have any brothers - marry in the village to get away from the title of Slave - ladders are introduces - biggest guns the people in those parts have ever scene - people with the biggest guns have the most power - Namibia (main character) - Mis carriages - Dibia (doctor and priest) believes in a cult medicine - Obierika, hangs with their cousins and dies due to poisoning by the cousins, who slipped something from the Dibia and killed him because they thought they'd get free access to his lands - Novel sufficiently shows the power women had within the practices of the language group - goes around the village denouncing the two cousins until the chief says "stop" - get the women's council on her side and makes a bigger threat - she knows the men will win out because they will always have more power - Send sun to school to defend her in courts - The catholic school teaches in English whereas the Anglican school teaches in Igbo with the class in English 1 hour a day. - She regrets (pedagogical techniques) corporate punishment (teacher have been beating him) , he losses his curiosity, he became dull, he doesn't want to eat her food anymore, an echo from chike, she can't even say his name, Michale, he told her to cover herself up, mothers like this is how I've been - He begins to reject all of the customs in which he is raised - coming of age ceremony, grabs him by the ear and makes him - coming of age would mental circumcision - Marries a young women, a few ceremony things that they won't do which is disa posting but they had a son, but its not her husbands spirit - she didn't like the grandchild - then they had a daughter and they did have the spirit - she ahs to enter the white mans world and become a history professor

Chinua Achebe Canvas Notes

Chinua Achebe is the most influential African writer. - His novel Things Fall Apart can be considered as the gateway to contemporary world literature and to African literature. -The child of an African man converted to Christianity who became a missionary, - Achebe grew up with British literature in his father's library and African stories in his mother's hut. - Troubled by the image of Africans as devoid of civilization that he found in British literature, he resolved to write "Africa from the inside." - The world of his novels and short stories finds Africa to be a complex civilization with a rich history and social makeup. - But it is not simply to learn about Africa that readers go to Achebe's work; - his writing is compelling, with complex characters facing conflicts and tensions that are sometimes insurmountable.

Essay notes

Conclusion: I'd I had more time and space, I'd like to go more in-depth about the cultural proportion of ______ - Advance your argument, don't' cut it off in the conclusion - 2-3 pages - Clarity -Keep it simple -Show you're sophisticated - Talk about issues and how the author represents it - Look at his notes on the story your choose and just make that your claim

"Tourists" by Yehuda Amichai

Contrast between the first section in verse, and the second in prose. The verse section speaks of the distance tourists are able to take from the sacred spaces they visit. The prose section talks about the heart of any land—not the ancient history that was enacted on its surface, but the human life that is in its heart. "A man who's bought fruit and vegetables for his family." -

Wedding at the Cross

Dodge W. Livingstone Jr. is his english name (Wariuki is his african name) - Note the first paragraph writes from a present-day public perception of Wariuki and Mariamu. What's on the surface doesn't show the pathway to the state of the marriage.Wariuki's free-spirit not wholly traditional—he uses the bicycle, for instance, and the object of mimicry is the "white bosses." What his persona shows is an insistence on enjoyment and not a disposition to adhere to principles of the successful life.Douglas Jones is the more Christian than thou father to Mariamu. It is perhaps a degree of adolescent rebellion that helps Wariuki find her favor. -• The seemingly reasonable discourse of Mariamu's father is meant to drive home the humiliation. The last coffin nail: "Let me see your bank book."Perhaps we are supposed to think Dad a shallow, money-obsessed person, but I think Wariuki would not have been ashamed if he didn't see some legitimacy in the interrogation. - The not great job at Ciana Timber cannot dampen the spirit of W. Emphasized in his music, singing.• Description of nights of dancing and of love in the forest—a seed is planted.• But. . ."He would never forget that interview." And, "a restless note crept into his singing: bitterness of an unfulfilled hope and promise."• So begins his restless wanderings all over Kenya and Africa (his wife and new son conveniently stashed with his mother in Limuru). 1. Fighting for the British in several arenas of war (no promised compensation)• 2. Attempt to work as a scab in a shoe factory. (For Ngugi, who is sympathetic to Marxist ideology, union busting would be a disgrace).• 3. On the bottom of 941, young men are organizing against the British in favor of independence. W. ignores what Ngugi would think of as a noble enterprise (independence from colonial rule) in favor of striking out for "moneyland."• 4. We see that later, after a brief stint as a market peddlar, that his cooperation with British authorities help him not only avoid concentration camps, but to retain his little piece of land and increase it as imprisoned freedom fighters were losing their grip on their own land. A loan from the British help him start as timber merchant.• Then fearful that his refusal to aid in the independence movement will result in punishment, but "people were tired. They had no room in their hearts for vengeance at the victorious end of a just struggle" (942). • The final piece to the puzzle of prosperity is in place when Kenyatta expels South Asian residents from the country and he is able to cash in and gain more timberland and equipment. Aside from wealth, status achieved by joining the church. Mariamu sees immediately that his church singing is mournful and unmusical. • She begins to live a different life. Working with the workers, to the shame of her husband. "Why won't she conduct herself like a Christian lady?" he asks.• Mariamu worships with The Religion of Sorrows, which, despite its name, makes a joyful noise in their worship of God.• But we see near the bottom of the page 944 that this is the juncture with which the first description of the couple comes from (compare with story opening). For one, there is the ridiculous nature of the name. And of the clothes he forced on his mother and on Mariamu (she protests being presented as a virgin at her wedding).• Waiuki, um, Dodge, um, Mr Livingstone, has overcome his shame based on bank book. But, it is implied, he has lost himself in the process. Replaced with a stiff, formal, joyless paragon of the community.• Mariamu's heroic "no" at the end of the charade. The logic, I'm already married, but my husband is no more sums things up succinctly.

Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt)

Egyptian feminist, writer, and doctor; she has written many books about women and Islam, with a focus on female genital mutilation affecting women in society, she is the founder and president of the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights -born in upperclassfamly -had access to upper-level government in Egypt -1932-2021 -Mother was from the old aristocracy -Born as a female in a place that wanted only males (eco of that in the story) "Oh such a pity, a girl and ugly to" - Parents were progressive, made sure all their children could get an education -Her education looks well, -medical doctor, health administration, leader in-country -Director of Public Health -1972, published book "Women and sex" - about what she considered to be the brutality of women's circumcision. -Getting rid of the clit (she had to get it at 6 years old with no anesthesia) -Looked for their mother for consolation, but her mother was smiling watching her circumcision. -Talked to women who had similar experiences, ear witnessed an account of women who were treated the same way the women in the story were treated. -Founded WOmen's solitary association; to help women's issues -association was dissolved by the government in 1991 and assets confiscated - Death sentence put on someone's head (salmon rushsky) -Scraped enough to escape to the US for 3 years -Duke University -taught -2011, Arab spring, Egypt crowded, asking for change -In prison and tortured for a speech act

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Canvas Notes/Class Notes

Existentialism-- skepticism of any pre-packaged belief system. If life has meaning, it must be created by the human himself or herself. Also, see a trillion pages of writing to explain this simple concept. -Thinks about the absurd It- Impossible way to make sense in a world that doesn't make sense - Solution is to Act as if there was meaning attached to one action The Absurd--see p. 753. "The impossibility of `making sense of a world that has no discernible sense." Some are tempted to reduce this to a kind of nihilism (belief in nothingness") but for Camus, the solution is to act "as if there was meaning" attached to one's actions. Revolt: Again, p. 753. "the rejection of the conventional and the inauthentic, but also an embrace of a shared humanity." Engagement--For the educated person, especially, an obligation to strive toward the betterment of the conditions of those with fewer resources, less access to power, etc. - For him, he shared it with Sartre - a person who has meant as an obligation to strive to help those with less access to resources and power -New Criticism--Everything in the text. Celebrate universal elements, human response to the structures of feeling in language. Popular in the 1950s when literature had an established, inflexible canon. Problems with this approach. Rejection of New Criticism. Literature in Context. History, Social-Cultural characteristics, Time, and Life of the Author. All enhance the reading of the text.

Nadine Gordimer (South Africa)

received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991 1923-2014 Nadine Gordimer was a South African writer and political activist. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1991, recognized as a writer "who through her magnificent epic writing has ... been of very great benefit to humanity" -Gordimer's writing dealt with moral and racial issues, -She was active in the anti-apartheid movement, - joining the African National Congress during the days when the organization was banned, -and gave Nelson Mandela advice on his famous 1964 defence speech at the trial which led to his conviction for life. -She was also active in HIV/AIDS causes. -interest in racial and economic inequality in South Africa was shaped in part by her parents. -Her father, Isidore Gordimer, was a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant watchmaker -Her mother was from an assimilated family of Jewish origins -Her father's experience as a refugee from Tsarist Russia helped form Gordimer's political identit -saw activism by her mother, whose concern about the poverty and discrimination faced by black people in South Africa led her to found a crèche for black children.[5] -witnessed government repression first-hand as a teenager; the police raided her family home, confiscating letters and diaries from a servant's room -educated at catholic school -Home-bound and often isolated, she began writing at an early age, and - published her first stories in 1937 at the age of 15. went to college but She did not complete her degree, but moved to Johannesburg in 1948, where she lived thereafter. - arrest of her best friend, Bettie du Toit,[12] in 1960 and the Sharpeville massacre spurred Gordimer's entry into the anti-apartheid movement -ctive in South African politics, and was close friends with Nelson Mandela's defence attorneys -he also helped Mandela edit his famous speech -left johannesburg or short periods of time to teach at several universities in the United States -In South Africa, she joined the African National Congress when it was still listed as an illegal organization by the South African government -In 2006, Gordimer was attacked in her home by robbers, sparking outrage in the country. Gordimer apparently refused to move into a gated complex, against the advice of some friends -

Albert Camus (1913-1960) and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Friends until Albert stopped supporting the ideology around the. communist party Sartre was angry at him until the rest of their life Albert got Nobel Prize, Sartre never got one

Background on "the Headstrong Historian" -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Frome from her collection of short stories - returned to her earlier inspiration by novels of Chinua Achebe - being sin in 19th century western africa during the scramble for africa, in which colonial powers sought influence on the continent - women's perspective ,showing different side of the events - how igbo women of the late 19th century negotiated native marriages practices, the competing demand of missionaries from the catholic and anglican churches and the education of her son - Story displays Adichie's characters empathy as seh images how Nwagba, a women raised in traditional culture, ties to understand and succeed in a world that is being transformed by europeans colonists - sends her son to a missionary school in hope that he learned english - knowing english will help him claim land that he once belong to his father - son comes foreigner to her, doesn't follow tradition customs and moves away - she develops close relationship with her granddaughter Afamefuna, or grace - Grace is introduced in the last pages of the story, shared the given name of adichie mother grace Ifeoma - effective way to link africa's' pre-colonial and colonial history to its contemporary reality - Nwamba is the authors great gansmotehr - writing of the story is a link to a living but distant past - details of modern life to telescope two centuries of african history - contemporary relevance

Amalgamation

refers to a blending of cultures, rather than one group eliminating another (acculturation) or one group mixing itself into another (assimilation).

Headstrong historian class notes cont

Grace's school textbook - his experience in an essay called the pacification of the primitive tribes of southern nigeria - Agueke-village destroyed one day and grace visits it -couldn't trust their accounts of teachers because they also talked about mermaids - grace=afamefune - she is playing the hands of british historians - George is fiance - (chi) in the name -misguided of her to write about primitive culture instead of worthwhile african culture....(why marriage ended)

Mahmoud Darwish Class Notes

He likes his language, he likes his word -"There is on this land that which makes life worth living". -sits in prison for 24 hours, for only 1 hour his sun gets sunlight in it, he is appreciative for that one hour -moss on the stone, shows metaphor or resiliency for the Israeli people -Writes-in Arabic

The Guest Notes-Albet Campus

Horse stumbled - Schoolmaster -Cold, got sweeter -Classroom -Snow fell in October -People stopped coming because of bad weather - Daru -He saw 2 men -The delivery truck had brought him supplied 2 days before the blizzard - Daru distributed a ration to children - Wheat arriving from France -Poverty - Earth shriveled up - Snow -Daru was born here, felt exiled everywhere else - Balducci held back their horse to not hurt Arab - 1 hour to do 3 kilometers - Heat up classroom - Daru noticed his huge lips - Opstaent for heat -Restless and rebellious look - School master making Balducci tea - Drang tea in small sips - Balducci was going to head back to town - Daru doesn't want to do what he says - "Listen, son" - Balducci says Daru needs to watch a guy and hold him there - The man doesn't speak french - Man killed this cousin, Balducci had to capture him like arresting him, Daru needs to watch him/hold him at the place - serves the Arab, Arab is the captured guy - Daru doesn't want to tie him up, Balducci calls him crazy - Daru doesn't want to hand him off - Balducci says its and order - Balducci says he won't say anything, all he had to do was drop him off - Daru signs off, so now the Arab is his responsibility to hand him off - I cant plow there - Rock covered a lot of the region - Men came, fought, and died - In Desert - When to shed to get cheese, eggs, milk, mad an omelet - Set revolver down - Served the Arab - Arab ate cake, wanted Daru to eat, but Daru said the go-ahead - Arab to schoolmaster "Are you the judge", Schoolmaster "no" - Arab killed a person because his cousins ran away, and he ran after him - Middle of Night Daru had close to no clothes on at night, doesn't sleep with many clothes on but he felt he needed clothes because of the Arab - Men who share a room, usually soldiers, become very close to each other - Revolver is still in the drawer - Arab put feet on ground, stood up slowly - Arab heads toward door - Arab leaves, runs away - Arab comes back to bed, probably used the bathroom - Arab was asleep - Arab starring at Daru, Daru gives him food - Arab and Daru went out onto the terrace - Balducci didn't want to be associated with him - Prisoner coughed - Arab washing teeth with 2 fingers - Snow melting fast - Landscape had a chaotic look - Daru gives him a food package to run away with, also gives him money - Arab doesn't know what to do, but he has a 2-hour walk - Daru says he will be sheltered there - Daru leaves the Arab there and heads back to the school building -Dary kept walking - Daru made out the Arab walking to prison - The Arab walked himself to prison - Schoolmaster follows the Arab and sees the Arab heading for prison - Daru sees it also - Plateau, "you handed over our brother, you will pay for this"

Wole Soyinka Day 2 Canvas

In the egungun, tribal elders wear the masks that represent the ancestors. During the ceremony, they are the ancestors. Knowing this, it becomes easier to understand Amusa's fear, Olunde's notion that this is desecration of the sacred. -

Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951)

Incarcerated in auschwitz-Birkenau, Dautmergen, adn Dachau-Allah at ages of 20-22 -committed suicide by gas at 28 -Writes stories about life in the capts -For most writer in "literature of atrocity" -Born in 1922 to Polish Catholic parents in Zytomeire, polish controlled city -mother (3 yo) and father (7 yo)deported -raised by aunt and educated in soviet school until prisoner exchange brought his father home in 1932 -mother released in 1934 -sent to boarding school to be cheaply educated -Never had a family life -WWii when he was 16 -Studied illegaliy because Nazies didn't permit higher education for poliles. -refused to join political groups -wanted to write poetry. -publishing was illegal, but first poetry collection had 165 copied. -Wherever the Earth: poetry collection -Showed black perspective of concentration camps -captured and sent to auschwitz 2 months after release -Jewish Uprising -survived by taking a position as an orderly in the hospital -experimental subject -he wrote a letter to his fiance also at the camp - Got to see here when picking up bodies -Transferred to Dachau-Allah with two other men, Janusz and Krystyn -After the war, a publisher found him a job -published fiction memoirs including "This way for the gas, Ladies, and Gentleman" -return to Poland, he became a big writer -Married Maria Rundo, wrote journalism and week stories that followed communist political liens and employed a newly strident tone. -Did intelligence work in berlin for the Polish secret service in 1949 -learned more about concentration camps -Newborn daughter, committed suicide in 1951

Yehuda Amichai (1924-2000)

Israeli poets - neutralized in both landscape and language of modern Israel -poetry independent of the history of Hebrew as a sacred language -helped to appropriate the language of the epic, biblical struggles of the people of Israel -the movement of modernized medieval Hebrew began in the 18th century -Hebrew is a vigorous language -no revived as modern spoken language and adapted to ordinary life in the early 20th century. Amichai sought to create a poetic idiom that was home with the colloquial rhythms n and idiomatic expression of revived Hebrew. -Born in Germany and came to Palestine with his family in 1936 -Jewish home and attended Hebrew since a kid, though he was able to transition to modern Hebrew fast -in his poetry, he speaks of his childhood as a time of happiness and peace, though he was in Germany -Adult life was during turbulence in the state of Israel. -he serves in a Jewish brigade in WWII -saw active duty as an infantryman with the elite Jewish army, the Palmach, during the Israeli war of independence, 1956 and 1973 -studies at Hebrew University, -secondary teacher of Hebrew literature and bible, but soon took poetry more seriously -Started writing in 1949 and published his first collection in 1955, now and in other days. -short stories and plays - Deceptive simplicity of American poems -Address ordinary moments and casual encounters -captures many resonating layers of the language and insist and contradictory reality of contemporary Israel life - Language is despairing, gently ironic, playful, and passionate by turns and moving easily between -his scope of the poetry is large -child's Arlen ness and brusque direction of a war-hardened veteran -a city as a mother, drying laundry and entrenching enmities a lost child and lost goat. metaphors that -donne and skahspear -favorite form was short lyric -had long poles but mostly short ones -stunning immediacy that aine city that other people -some students called up for war after they went back to the room with their gun -brought to the attention of British and American readers by ted hughs, who published his work in modern poetry in translation - Amen -8 volumes have appeared in English -best known for the hebrew language, contemporary poet -he iberated hebrew from the burden of its history

Wedding at the cross by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o background

the effects of the previous y decades of Kenyan history on a particular married couple - comparison between the western middle class in the pursuit of prosperity -

Assimilation

the process through which individuals and groups of differing heritages acquire the basic habits, attitudes, and mode of life of an embracing* culture

abrogation

the repeal or abolition of a law, right, or agreement. an be considered in the context of language. Rather than bending the writing voice to the proper voice of, say, English, the writer writes more like the people are likely to talk in the streets. Abrogation can be a rejection of more than language, but of other social systems as well—the idea of history, some cultural forms, etc

Anaphora

the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses (the headstrong historian....it was grace)

Apartheid

Laws (no longer in effect) in South Africa that physically separated different races into different geographic areas.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o class notes

writing in language of oppression was only increasing the oppressor so he started writing in his native language -achebe - makes a great case - 6 million kenyans that read the language - Gikuyu=language - but not many people are able to be influences by it because not many people speak it - Life marked by Mao Mao rebellion was instrumental in expelling the british from kenya, and his intellectual life was heavily influenced by Marxism and writer from the radical left.

"Identity Card"- Darwish

Mahmoud Darwish's poem "Identity Card" takes the form of a conversation between a Palestinian narrator and an Israeli official responsible for verifying his identity at a security checkpoint. The narrator confronts the Israeli bureaucrat with his anger at having been uprooted from his homeland. Israel has, in his account, "stolen the orchards of [his] ancestors" and reduced his identity to "a name without a title." By referencing the line "The usurper's flesh will be my food" out of context, Regev erroneously frames Darwish's opposition to the Israeli occupation as hatred of the Jewish state. However, the conclusion of "Identity Card," does not express a desire to destroy Israel; it warns of the consequences of long-lasting oppression. The violent threat in this stanza can only be understood within its context as the second half of a conditional sentence: "if I become hungry/The usurper's flesh will be my food." Hunger, distinct from bloodlust, is not the desire to enact violence, but the result of going without food. This statement is a warning about the consequences of keeping Palestinians in a state of deprivation, a warning that leaving people with no constructive way to sustain themselves will only lead to destruction -8 children -Rest loaf of bread -Why do you hate me just for being a Palestinian in Israel -Everything lives in a whirlpool of anger -Identity story -From a remote forgotten village -Says, 'put it on record" " i don't hate people, I don't trespass, if I was hungry, Id eat the flesh of uspurper

Two Sisters Class Notes

Mercy has to ride the bus with gros seats - if she had better luck shed have aman drop her off at home - Man is poor that she likes - New pair of black shoes are more realistic than their owner - Shoes sing - Her sister, Connie (6 year age difference) - Political changes between constance's marriage and Mercy's coming of age might suggest something - Mercy doesn't like her mans empty wallet, but Cannie says that he is a good choice, might be rich one day - Boy freind who is married ought her the black shoes - Last week she didn't have a penny on her - Perspectives switch - Wakes the reader up - Car comes, sound of the car is the most beautiful thing for her - Parents good presbyterians - Monnie knows that running around with old men would not be allowed by her parents - Personifying the gulf of Ghiny - you see contradictory things along the beach - 50 year old big man - Offer a second solution - Romance, she gets. her apartment, Connie get her sewing machine, james is left high and dry - Mercy is no longer dating mensa because he was sent to prison in a cew. -Connie goes to her husband james, he says "let her", about Mercy using old men - It could help them if the sister knows these powerful men/ Mensa Arthur - Captain Ashley: the one in the crystal over the weekend, about daughter and grandchildren , Mercy wants to date this hella old guy - No judgement on mercy or connie -

Afamefuna

My name will not be lost

The Headstrong Historian Notes

Nwamgba missed her husband - My husbands name was Obierika - First saw him at a wrestling map - Didn't was menstruation cloth -Post of palm wine, he brought it for her - He was an only child - prior wives lost kids - Said she'd run away if her father didn't' let her marry Obierika - H was concerned about infertility in the Obierikas family - Bride Price, came with 2 maternal cousins - Obierika sold yams to farms -She didn't like the cousins, but she put up with them - Obierika wanted to imagine he had brothers - Oberika assured her that they'd have kids - She worried about childlessness - Namibia, people sang to her, people feared her - went to the Oyi stream - water of Oyi was fresh - Oyi was the protector of women - Ayaju was second wide of Obierika - Ayaki was of slave decent - She was a trader - Earned her the respect due to cosmopolitanism - only slaves in women's meeting - Ayaju said other women should take a lover and get pregnant to continue lineage - Had a 2nd miscarriage - Did a ritual cleansing - A had kid named Anikwenwa, the earth god - cousins visited often - loved the kid - kid learned the flute and wrestling - She feared for child - When Obierika died, they killed him with medicine - She was sad - help like a woman how hung herself after the death of her 10th child - Cousins poisoned him - they wanted land - they knew that if the accused drank his___ they would also die if they were guilty - Nwangba was blinded by grief - she confronted the cousins - Said they cheated on a widow - Women's Council tried to kick the cousins out, but it didn't work - She wanted to kill them but knew she'd be banished - Ayaju said that people had guns - White men asking parents to send their kids to school - Luke, son of Ayaju, was sent to school - White people had better guns, that's why they were enslaved - Two white men visit the village - Only one spoke Igbo - white men from a different location - Holy Ghost Congregation - These white guys brought good news - They laughed, they thought white men were full of wisdom. - White set up the courthouse - they were here to stay - Ayaju's son was learning about ways - but Nwambg didn't want to send her son to school - changed her find - Obierika's cousins took over the land - If he can speak English he can defend the land in court - Iroegbunan went with a white man and was freed from slavery - Namibia was scared her son would leave like that - Anikwenwa first went to an Anglican mission - Taught about how the water turned to wine - Found teaching them how to sew. - Nwangiba thought that was silly - Children learned best in their own language but she wanted her son to learn English - Went to a Catholic mission - Anikwenwas needed a new name to go to catholic school - just needed to know enough English to fight his father's cousins - Baptized the boy - people of living god did not walk around naked - Nwangba would make a good missionary but she was not interested - Boy was determined to excel there - Flogged students for being late, lazy, etc - She came every weekend to take him home - Boy would take off clothes as soon as possible, he disliked it - boy missed out on wrestling contests - his attitude changed - he no longer did his share in the village due to school - He stopped eating her food - didnt' like mom being naked - said it was sinful - Didn't want to participate in the initiation ceremony into the village - She forced him to do it - boy lacked excitement - she was happy he was learning - boy was able to talk to his cousin and get his ivory tusks back - Dogs killed a man so the dogs became banned - he announced he was appointed catechist, she didn't say anything. to this achievement - he won the soles of members of the clan - he no longer aids anything she made for him - Namibia was wick with malaria and dying - wanted her to do a ceremony - Christian wives shouldn't have been touched at all - Women thought the wedding was insane - Son was married to Mgbeke or Agnes - He didn't know how to handle women who cared so he ignored her - She refuses to take her clothes us, and they dumped her at the grove - Anikwenwa stood up for his wife - She was ashamed of the won and created by her wife - She held out hope for a grandchild - wanted a boy to get an Obierika comeback - after 2 miscarriages - Michael was Anikwenwa - wanted a baby at the mission but gods had different plans - it was a boy, peter/Nnamdi - didnt' feel the spirit of their husband - had more miscarriages - baby girl - baby eyes, the spirit of Obierika had returned - called her Afamefuna/grace - she was sent to secondary school - Grace read about savages and meaningless customs - grace went against the religion and school - grace didn't like father - grace taught elementary school, taught about - grace changed my degree from chemistry to history - wanted to add African history to the curriculum, but African history isn't even a subject - grace began to rethink their father's schooling - grace was haunted by images of the ruined village - shed reimagine lives of grandmothers world - IT WAS GRACE WHO - Divorce in 1972, 4 miscarrages - shed strangle George to death is she had to listen to her husband again - Changed name from grace to Afamefuna Grace liked her poetry and stories -changes name back to the original name - Grace is the Headstrong Historian -Grace represents Adichie - Michael is their father, contrast their opinions - Grace hears about the destruction of the village

"Sleep in Jerusalem" by Yehuda Amichai

Proves the point made in the introduction that Amichai juxtaposes the monumental and the ordinary. Nation building vs people asleep in a room. The image of the olive tree very common in both poets.

'Jerusalem" by Yehuda Amichai

Shows us the flag of nationalism in contrast with laundry hanging on the line. Another reminder that in conflict there are human beings on both sides.

Albert Campus Class Notes

Spanish Father - Alspacial Mother Mother was widowed early on -Father sent to WWI, an early casualty of WWI - Mother was deaf from a childhood ilness - MOther was a maid at hotels, had to keep 2 jobs -He was a talented athlete - Soccer Player -At age of 19 he contracted tuberculosis which gave him a look at his own mortality - didn't die from that, he died from a car accident - Vigo Mortenson

Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) Canvas Notes

Spent childhood in Palestine, getting a Hebrew-language education. In 1948, when the State of Israel came into existence, Darwish's home village was completely destroyed. 14-year-old activist poet. The threat comes against the Father in the family. 19 when first volume was published. 20 when he got his "first taste" of Israel's prisons. Note the alternation between prison and poetry that exist for Darwish throughout the 60s. School in Moscow, periods of life in Egypt and Lebanon. "the voice of the Palestinian consciousness on the one hand as as the expression of the aspirations of the oppressed on the other." Look at the increasing loss of nationalistic hope in the phases of Darwish's poetry as shown in the introduction.

Mouse

Survival tactics - parallel with the author's life - was able to see my girlfriend - worked on the roof of the barracks -tried to communicate with my wife -

Poem without End - read by Amichai

Synagogue, "Inside the synagogue is me" inside my heart a museum Inside the brand-new museum, there's an old synagogue. Inside the synagogue is me. Inside me my heart. Inside my heart a museum. Inside the museum a synagogue, inside it me, inside me my heart, inside my heart a museum

Who Wrote "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen"

Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951)

Background on THe Guest by Albert Camus

Taken from exile and kingdom, campus returns to the landscape of his native Algeria -Colonial context explains the real threat of guerrilla reprisal and established the dimensions of the political situation in which multiple aspects controlled many levels of Algeria, controlled by France -Illustrates how french colonial education emphasized french rather than local concern, -outlines 4 main rivers of France - concentrated on wider issues, freedom, brotherhood, and responsibility - remote landscape makes a complete physical and moral isolation from the storys events - When Balducci invades Daru's monastic solitude and tells him that he must deliver the Arab to prison, Daru is outraged to be given involved in, and indeed responsible for another fate -Daru tried to avoid taking the stand -finds himself confronted with essential human demand for hospitality, creating a burden and link between guests and hosts -Arab prisoner -both guest and host are obliged to shoulder the ambitious and potential fatal burden of freedom

Africa

The Guest - the prisoner is his guest - of duty vs human impulse - What it means to be colonial Two sisters - tough situation for both merci and conny - Constance -Merci- financially, literary devices add "sauce" - Passion - Testing whether Juju works - Through the young women's voice and the humor the reader is able to find the story Chike Raised in the ways of a white man Christian untouchable cast in his society The idea of his love of learning Adichie "Headstrong historian Assimilation Grace Spirit of obierca Betrayer of Obierca Wedding at the cross two main characters Wariuki Merium Does what father wants good daughter of a good Christian successful man He is a free-spirited entertainer, heartthrob Refusal to be involved in the independence movement Mau Mau's rebellion doesn't want to be in it Was a milk clerk Ngugi would see those things as shameful then refuse to fight for the British - becomes a timber merchant, yet dispassionate Christian - They depart paths, they have 2 kids

The Guest by Albert Camus- Canvas Notes

The colonial history of France in Algeria. Brutal war with questionable methods used on both sides, that ran for an excruciating 8 years, from 1954-to 1960. The Battle of Algiers ( a cinema classic that is centered around two groups in the conflict. The status of Camus as a pied-noir Refers by this time to North African-born people of European ancestry. Comes to refers to those who return to France or Europe after Algerian independence. Several origin stories--the one I like best contrasts the footwear of the Europeans--their black boots--to the minimal footwear of N. Africans. The theme of morality and ethics in the work of Camus. Advocacy of **engagement. The presence of the *absurd in the work of Camus. *absurd: "The discrepancy between our desire for meaning and the actual non-sense of material reality." **engagement: devotion to liberty and justice "as if" the world made sense. "The Guest" Here in Daru we have what may be closest to the existential hero. He is utterly alone in the world. A world that in its very nature is hostile to the human community. He chooses to do good through some force that comes simply from his most individual and undetermined set of principles He becomes, in the end, a fierce advocate of choice above all else. All of this seeps over into the cultural specificity of the moment. Algeria was on the verge of revolt, the attitudes of France as the "guardian" of Algeria, and the inability to stay "neutral" in a land where these kinds of forces erupt. etc. Camus, as Algerian-born and living in France even more torn on the issue of Algerian independence. Ask how these issues--of alignment and breaking off from colonial powers--recurs in India, Africa, etc., shape consciousness and thus the literature of the region. A few indicators of Daru's

If I forget thee, Jerusalem by Yehuda Amichai

The importance of memory of the homeland. The vital connection of the physical body to the place.

"A Poem which is not Green, from My Country" by Mahmoud Darwish

The never and other negatives remove Palestine from the ancient and romanticized history of the Arab world, its literature. Importance of the letter (the Arabic letter?) and of the memory that needs no written testimony to summons it (like the "swallow who is silent but never forgets its song." -Sinbad: Where does he appear, tales of the Arabian nights -the threat of stories in that -Extract Palestine from the proud history with something like the Arabian nights - Rubaiyat for Fadwa Tuqan

"God has Pity on Kindergarten Children" by Yehuda Amichai

The old refrain of the innocence of childhood, then with school and adulthood a movement away from the divine(?). Lovers, however, here, are given the grace that they perhaps move back towards the divine.

Doreen Baingana/Passion Class Notes

The story doesn't seem to be meant to be written down - doctor and missionary -Teachers can't go home after 40 years It- Not meant to be a tirade against old ladies - pay tribute to the bravery of British Women who start down guns of the army of a dictator known to kill people who disagree with him -Their juju must be stronger -Women like to go by their Kagondan name, -shouldn't have less than three boyfriends - Constant motion maker her a thrilling history teacher - Her favorite class is English literature - King Lear - looking at Mr. Lotto, thinking thoughts that are arousing passion -Puts in mind a fantasy of Lotto kissing one of her teachers - She sweating her ass off - Everything she does when looking at him is sexually suggestive, she thinks he's getting aroused -Third theory is that that is how he always acts, he's not seductive at all - Rosa are you a women - the reader is shocked by that - Personal questions -Everything he does is kind, yet maybe the thing that she might need to hear - Look, you're a good student - She needs a passion for literature -Aids that is debilitating to the body - Plague in Africa, story about school children free sexually and reaped the consequences because they shared sexual things together

Mimicary

Trying to be more british then the british

Wedding at the cross

Wariuki wants his wives fathers approval, Miriamu is the wife - he asks different - things start changing - he wants to have money for her - He was embarrassed at - In her eyes he is dead, he has changed so much - African culture is eroding - African cultures need to push back - he is dead, not what he wants to be

The Old Chief Mshlanga Notes

White girl's fathers' farm - Northern forests - child/girl -the sun was the foreign sun, the wind spoke a strange language -Child taught to take servants for granted -She carried a gun as amour against fear -servants would run to pick up a book if she dropped it. -If natives came into sight, dogs would chase them - Amuse themselves by making a fool out of the black kids - carried a gun - if a servant made a mistake due to the language barrier, they would laugh - 14 years old, evening, walking down a field and saw a group of 3 Africans. Didn't call dogs toward them -old man, wight on a stick, -natives seeking work -girl/natives call her invoices

Doris Lessing Canvas Notes

Winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature. Born in Persia (modern day Iran), and moved to Rhodesia at the age of 6. Mother a Nurse. Father a disabled WWI veteran. Father bought a sizable tract of land using incentives for white settlers in the area When to boarding schools/ convent schools until the age of 14, after which she was self-educated. Member of the Communist Party from 1952-56. In the same year she left the Communist Party, she was declared a prohibited alien in Rhodesia and South Africa Lived mostly in England after this time. Most well-known book is The Golden Notebook. Wrote Science Fiction works in the 70's and 80's

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Class Notes

Written one of the best historical novels every - 'half of the yellow sun" - Nigeria was becoming a rich country but all the money was going to the house of ___, ibo had enough of that and declared war, - Bloody horrible war - Civil war -Feminist - Catholic in Nigeria - Aristocratic Father - SOciety where two cousins can have exploitive qualities - power over newanga because she is not male - People with power are the people who understand the English language - she wants education for her son so that they can protect their property from their grasping cousins - Doens' think the british understand her language - you pick up her work and know it well

Doris Lessing Class Notes

_born in Persia -my father was a WWI veteran, hurt in war - Sold acres of land to white settlers for a low price - my father took the money and moves the family to Rhodesia - secluded farm with a god library - loses herself in books - Sent to a convent school -Lonely childhood dominated by books - Family trying to acclimate to the African lifestyle - She left Rhodesia /Zimbabwe because she got exiled for her activism and writing and communism - Natives were being kicked off their land so the British could have more ownership, and she spoke up against that, so they declared her a prohibited alien and ended up with a writing career

The Old Chief Mshlanga class notes

all about the author's early life growing up in her father's farm -- Romancing land with dog and gun - fear - dogs would tree a nature if they saw him -felt the gun was necessary - when white children met, they hailed a passing a native to make a fool out of them - made dogs chase after them -children felt more compassion towards dogs, rather than natives who preexisted on land - Even if she talked to a person on the farm, her mother would run and tell her to not talk to natives -consciousness of danger- - if a servant made a mistake there was laughter, afraid of itself - had a rifle in their arm and dogs are her heels - switches to first-person narration - when she was about 14, description of landscape, environment she was unable to see in the first place, -red clouds like red sea - birds chirping -Maturity of writing - doesn't want to be associated with their younger self - Umhlanga, walks with dignity and poise, she wasn't used to seeing that in the native people, she was impressed - He treated her with more respect than the other way around - She found an old explorer book and realized Chief Mashlonga was talked about in an account of the region which had already been written - David the destination was chief malangas country and would ask for permission to ask for gold in the region - Prospector came by asking to dig in reek bed to find gold and he gives the title to her collection, "this was the old chief country" - These few encounters change her attitude as to where she is - OFfered and took greetings -other landscape in her mind faded and her feet struck African soil - trying the dance, the steps were hard to learn - not an easy place for the white settlers even in contemporary Africa - He better not put on a chief son act with me, to the mom he is just a worker in the kitchen - my son was a good worker but drank too much on weekends as a way to being born into royalty to now being forced to cook for white people - Want to find the chielfs Kraawl/kopji -valid, plain washed over by a waterway, went from level to level down the valid - crocodile comes out and kills deer, - she wasn't even 10 miles from homes -experiences something about Africa that she never had to experience before - narrator to the old chief, awkward - Huts were lovingly decorated, her idea of where natives lived was like her farm compound, a dirty and neglected place for migrants that had no roots - people who lived on the farm were in temporary homes - The places that are home they will decorate -called her out that she walks here as a destroyer - that's all she will ever be seen as - She only saw chief mshlanga once again - goats have eaten crops of jordan - in reparation Jordan keeps his goats - Mshlanga said that then his people will starve over winter - Then they say to call the police - when the British colonial priest comes to argue between tribal police and a British subject, the British wins - police guy did come and made it so that they would reassign the chief and his people to a different land - new land is probably not taken care of, not well-watered and fertile - She went back to see the village a year afterward - plants were growing 15feet tall, outlandishly fertile spot of land -

Background on Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka

based on actual events -British Colonial officer intervention to prevent the ritual suicide - after death of the king of Oyo - horseman, a minor chief, accompanies king -Officer doesn't realize consequence of his intention with village, kings' horsemans song, also affected - story starts sumblic and ethnographic to concrete response of human beings to death -Opening scene shows Yoruba society 0 market setting, fusion of economic, social and religious life - kings horseman destined to die, accept his burden 0 hints at its latent tension - oral tradition, Elesin and his praise singer, familiar forms of oral poetry, proverbs and lineage parade - intense scene contrasts with flatness of the second - ignorance of British officer - satir e- Polkings, the colonial afficail, west traditional yoruba dress, reserves fro ritueal - colonial and indigenous worlds collide - both cultures have a tradition - rituals involving masked dancing - mediation figures - nuanced perspectives on central conflict - different forms of ceremony, ritual and dance make up the play - non british character informed by the syntax expression and rovers, and metaphors - shows the violence that occurs at the moment of contact between british and yoruba ways of life e- points at traditional and ritualistic aspects of british life - it was the british who sought to interrupt and dismiss yoruba traditions, doines' let us forget that -

"The Old Chief Mshlanga" Canvas Notes

can be the story of the awakening of a young girl into social consciousness. Or, into the consciousness of the humanity of people native to Africa, and also to the awful history through which the British dominated the area. To review the story, look at stages of presentation, stages of growth, stages of coming into awareness -there is the encounter with the old chief, who behaved with dignity and courtesy. -this awareness of a different sort of native blooms because it is authorized by a wandering prospector and by some passages in a local history, both of which used the phrase "this was the Old Chief's country." -Her own attitude changes and she claims that "my feet struck directly on African soil." She has become a kind of liberal, saying "there is plenty of room for all of us." -, she sets out to see his village, inspired by cheifs son - remarkable awareness of the vastness and perhaps the uncontrollable nature of this country -Upon her arrival at the village, she wonders at its cleanliness, its décor (decorativeness, its organization, having only the haphazard kraals set up for the natives on white farms for comparison. (No wonder home implies pride, whereas "workers quarters" is something the native doesn't want to claim as their own.) The encounter with Mshlanga is tense; it is not common ground. Why there is so much tension is something the story refuses to explicitly say. -The incident with the goats shows the girl's powerlessness against the system, and inevitably, it is the white man who will be favored by the law. Jordan, the father, persists even in full realization that the Chief's people will go hungry. Making matters worse, this paltry incident is the catalyst to moving the people far from their homeland, The Old Chief's Country. -A postscript has the girl realizing the richness of the native civilization and cultivation of their land, which will only benefit settlers in the future.

Appropriation

generally refers to the strategies employed by postcolonial societies and its writers and scholars that enable them to use the philosophical, linguistic, and academic tools introduced by the colonizers to offer their own versions of truth or, in ideal conditions, to dismantle the colonizers' claims to truth using the colonizers own language and vocabularies.

Passion by Doreen Baingana

"Passion" takes us into 17-year-old Rosa's lively and inquisitive mind, and into the world of the convent school where she works her magic. - capture the voice of her narrator—rollicking, restless, fascinated with a lot, not easily duped. "Why insist so strongly against juju if it doesn't exist?" -she questions, logically, and goes on to describe an experiment in magic that she performed on her teacher. - But the setting of the stage is precious. -Her assessment of her mostly British schoolteachers on the top of 180. -But in the interest of fairness, she admits that these same schoolmarms stood in front of guns for the students' sakes in the days of Idi Amin, adding "Their juju must be stronger, ha, ha" (180). - It's three pages in when we get the "juicy part," about safety pins and men. Eventually, Rose tries to cast the passion spell on Mr. Mukwaya, called "the walking wodo" because he was built like a wardrobe (a large dresser). -As her experiment goes on Rosa herself seems to suffer physical affliction—sweating, breathing heavily, etc. Mukwaya, too, seems a bit flustered, although the reader is not sure whether it is because the strangeness in the air that day, the repetition by Rose's friend - Nassuna of questions to the teacher about "the female sex", or if Mukwaya acts like this all the time, and Rosa had never noticed before. - The experiment goes out of control for Rosa, to the point where deep into a fantasy of Mukwaya kissing a new teacher Miss Bakunda - Rosa's imagination takes her to an extreme place of wooziness, compulsiveness, and who knows what else. Is there an implication that she has had a sexual experience during her time in the classroom? Baingana masterfully reels in the reader and Rosa, as - -- Mr. Mukwaya's after-class consultation with Rosa has none of the leering or shock value that a lesser writer might not have been able to avoid.

Doris Lessing

(1919 - 2013) modern British novelist - conflicts between cultures - won 2007 nobel prize -spend her life in conflict -witness to harsh colonial policies towards native subjects of Rhodesia and well as to the sexual and feminist revolutions in europe - writing interrogates the psychological of herself and larger relations (person vs political) - born in persia/iran -british barents -mother-nurse -father-clerk at bank who was crippled in WWI -Doris remembers her fathers bad memories of war - 1925, moved to Rhodesia, british colony, now Zimbabwe - set settlers incentives - bought 3,000 acres of land that was home to matabele tribe - farm didn't prosper - convent school until 14, but self educated nonetheless -read european and american lit - lobes 19th century books - stendhal, tolstoy, dostoevsky "the warmth, the compassion, the munit - social criticism - racial injustice, member of white community - social awareness is a theme of her work - literature should be committed to political issues - member of communist party from 52-56 - until soviet intervention - writing and activism got her prohibited in southern Rhodesia and south africa - office jobs -2 unsuccessful marriages - moved to english with son, tried out literary career - lawyer office -walked up to boss, said she gonna write, wrote book - book was successful -Poet of female experience , divid civilisation to scrutiny -